Book ^C67 JG 



I 




MEMOIRS 
I 



OF 



THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WEITINGS, 



OF 



THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, 

LL. D., F.S.A. 

BY 

WILLIAM JONES, M. A. 

) » 

AUTHOR OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, IS A COURSE OF LECTUBEa 

LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE — LIFE OF THE REV. 
ROWLAND HILL, M. A., &C. &C. 



LONDON: 

PRINTED BY M'GOWAN AND Co. 

GREAT WINDMILL STREET, 
HAY MARKET, 



1839. 



PREFACE. 



There is no species of composition more interesting or more 
instructive than faithful and well-written biography. Its im- 
mediate tendency is to unveil man to man. It discovers the 
virtues and the vices, the nobleness and the meanness, of 
which he is capable ; and it shows how the original sameness 
of human nature is varied by the operation of external causes, 
into ten thousand different shapes, and assumes as many 
shades and hues. It is calculated to awaken in the young an 
ardent love of virtue and solid excellence ; and of inciting in 
all a spirit of emulation to tread in the steps, which led those, 
who are now no more, to that eminence to which it is desi- 
rable to attain. But man, to be known, must be viewed in 
every situation ; and wherever he is fairly exhibited ; what- 
ever may have been his rank, station, or circumstances of 
birth or fortune, a valuable addition is made to science. 
Whether the record respects the struggles of talents and 
worth through the chilling regions of obscurity and penury, 
up to the glittering eminences of fame and reward ; or whether 
it details the operations of pride and ambition on minds born 
to wealth and power, it presents a useful lesson which all may 
turn to profit. 

Too frequently, however, has the task of recording the 
memoirs of the dead been committed to persons who felt 
themselves bound by a maxim which leads only to a celebra- 
tion of what is laudable, while those actions, which, on account 
of their notoriety, as well as of their natural mischievous 
consequences, are allowed to pass unnoticed, or are palliated 



iv 



PREFACE. 



as venial and trifling errors. This is an abuse of biography 
which should be guarded against. Too often has the press 
been prostituted to the vile purpose of becoming the instru- 
ment of panegyric upon a course of conduct which merited 
general execration ; not considering that the primary and 
legitimate object of Biography is designed, not so much to 
raise a monument to the dead, as to benefit the living. The 
dead, unconscious of censure or of applause, deaf to the voice 
of admonition, stationed beyond the influence of example, are 
removed from the sentence of man to the tribunal of his 
Maker. The living are within the reach of instruction, capable 
of being roused to the imitation of virtue, and inspired with 
an abhorrence of vice. For their sakes, then, ought the pro- 
ceedings of departed eminence to be recorded. Let worth 
be displayed in conspicuous colours ; let failings be unveiled 
with the kindness of charity, yet measured by the standard of 
justice ; let the steps which conducted to excellence, the pre- 
judices which bewildered in error, the seductions which allur- 
ed into guilt, be noted with such distinctness and strength, 
and illustrated with such fidelity of practical application, that 
the reader may lay down the book with his knowledge en- 
larged and his mind improved : let the dead receive, to the 
last particle, the honour which they deserve ; but above all 
things, let the biographer, zealous as he may be through 
friendship, and warmed by admiration of partial good quali- 
ties, never forget the paramount and sacred obligation of 
truth ; let nothing which ought to be made manifest be con- 
cealed ; if facts are withheld, let them not be so withheld 
tliat the delineation of the character shall in its general eff^ect 
be altered. Designedly to convey an erroneous impression, 
be it by words or by silence, is equally falsehood. 

These general observations are introduced for the purpose 
of apprizing the reader that in the following pages he must 
not expect an inflated panegyric, but a life of Dr. Adan- 
Clarke — a narrative in which the main incidents of his histor'. 



PREFACE 



aTe made to pass in review before him, accompanied by such 
free strictures and remarks as struck the mind of the biogra- 
pher at the moment, and which he wishes the reader to examine 
with candour, and make that use, and that use alone of, to 
which, after due dehberation, he may think them entitled. 

It is generally known to the reading public, that Dr. 
Clarke was, to a certain extent, his own biographer, and that 
what he left defective, his own family endeavoured to supply. 
Now we cannot reasonably doubt that the man who under- 
takes to write his own life has at least the first qualification of 
an historian, namely, the knowledge of the facts and incidents 
of which that life is made up. Certainty of knowledge, not only 
excludes mistakes, but fortifies veracity. But we must not 
forget, on the other hand, that an author's temptations to 
disguise are equal to his opportunities of knowing, and there- 
fore the question returns, whether impartiahty may be expect- 
ed with equal confidence from him that relates the passages 
of his own life as from him that delivers the transactions of 
another. It has been affirmed that he who writes the life of 
another is either his friend or his enemy, and consequently 
wishes either to exalt his praise or aggravate his infamy : 
many temptations to falsehood will occur in the disguise of 
passions, too specious to fear much resistance. The love of 
virtue will animate panegyric, and detestation of vice will 
embitter censure. The zeal of gratitude, the ardour of patrio- 
tism, fondness for an opinion, or attachment to a party, may 
easily overpower the vigilance of a mind, habitually well dis- 
posed, and prevail over unassisted veracity. On the contrary 
it may be said, that he who speaks of himself has no motive to 
falsehood or partiality except self-love, by which all have so 
often been betrayed, that every man should be upon the 
watch against its artifices. He that writes an apology for a 
single action, to confute an accusation, or to reconwnend 
himself to favour, is always to be suspected of favouring his own 
cause ; but he that sits down calmly and voluntarily to re- 



vi 



PREFACE. 



view Ills life for the benefit of posterity may be presumed to 
relate what is true, since falsehood cannot appease his own 
mind, and fame will not be heard beneath the tomb. 

The pertinency of these remarks to the subject before us, 
is almost too obvious to need pointing out. The life of Dr. 
Adam Clarke, published by his own family, is chiefly to be va- 
Jued on account of the facts and documents which it furnishes 
to d biographer, from which to extract materials, and work up 
his narrative. But who that takes the trouble to examine the 
multifarious contents of those printed volumes, is not instantly 
impressed with the total absence of all just taste and discrimi- 
nation in the compilers — all propriety of method and rule; 
in short he finds the work a perfect melange — a forest, thick- 
et, or garden, which calls for the hand of the horticulturist to 
prune, and pluck up, and transplant, in order to reduce the 
whole to something like symmetry and due proportion. 

It would be invidious to dwell in this place, upon that 
which constitutes so prominent a feature in the life published 
by the family, the perpetual exhibition of vanity and self-ap- 
piiiuse which in almost every page meets the reader's eye. 

On some of these things I have used the freedom to offer a 
gentle remonstrance as they presented themselves in the course 
of the following narrative, and hope I have done it without 
acrimony or invective. I have also done the same thing on 
some articles of Dr. Clarke's Theological creed from which I 
am compelled to withhold my assent. In every instance of 
the latter kind, I have appealed to^'' the Law and theTestimo- 
ny" as the grounds of my dissent, sincerely wishing the rea- 
der to examine the subject for himself by that unerring stand- 
ard. If he be wise for himself, he will not lock up his min i 
in prejudice, and, taking shelter behind the walls of fancied or- 
thodoxy, foolishly exclaim against every thing that is inimical 
to Methodism. There cannot be a greater mistake than to 
suppose that Methodism and Scriptural Christianity are one 
and the same thing. The former embodies the wisdom of Mr. 



PREFACE. Vii* 

John Wesley— the latter, the wisdom of the Lord and Sa- 
viour Jesus Christ, who purchased the church by his blood, 
and therefore has the sole right of prescribing to his redeem- 
ed people, in what particular form or method they shall wor- 
ship and serve him — what they shall believe and what they 
shall practise. In all these things the New Testament is a 
plain rule of duty — so plain that it wants nothing but a hum- 
ble, teachable, obedient mind to fall in with it. The church 
of Christ is his kingdom, in which he rules and governs, by 
laws issuing from himself, the fountain of eternal truth and 
wisdom— a people " made willing in the day of his power," 
Ps. ex. 3. The churches of which we read in the Acts of the 
Apostles, and their Epistles, were formed and constituted after 
a model given by Christ himself ^ Acts i. 3, and it must be the 
height of presumption and folly in any man or set of men to 
suppose they can improve upon or alter it for the better. But 
what affinity has that model with Methodism ? In the New 
Testament, which is the Christian's code of laws, there is no 
mention of classes and bands and admission tickets — none of 
districts and circuits, or stewards and superintendants — nothing 
of local and travelling preachers — much less of an Annual 
Conference in which all these affairs are to be regulated. All 
the names and titles now mentioned, appertain to a system 
which has little affinity with the constitution of things enact- 
ed under the guidance and direction of the Spirit of Inspira- 
tion, and exemplified in the primitive apostolic churches. To 
become subjects of Christ's Kingdom, men must give up with 
Mr. John Wesley and his writings as their guide, just as the 
first converts from Judaism to Christianity did with Moses and 
the Jewish ritual, and they must study the writings of the 
holy apostles. These inspired guides are sufficiently explicit 
in their declarations on this head ; for, after warning us to 
** believe not every Spirit, but to try the spirits vrhether they 
are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into 
the world," they give us this plain rule for our government 

b 



viii. 



PREFACE. 



and direction ** We'' the apostles, are of God : he that 
knoweth God neareth us : he that is not of God^ heareth not 
us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of er- 
ror," 1 John iv. 6. A Methodist may demur to this, and in- 
stead of having his conscience bound by what the apostles say 
in their writings, he may surrender his mind and judgment to 
the wisdom of the founder of Methodism ; but this is palpa- 
bly wrong, and must endanger the interests of his precious and 
immortal soul. His duty and his safety consists in bringing 
all that Mr. Wesley and Dr. Clarke have written, to the rule 
of the Scriptures, and follow the former i\o further than they 
follow the latter. But were this plan of procedure adopted, as 
in truth and consistency it ought to be, how would it thin the 
ranks of Methodism I 

A clamour has been raised in certain quarters agamst the 
*• Memoirs of Dr. Clarke'' now offered to the public, on the 
ground that they are compiled byaCalvinist; and one preacher 
in particular, went so far as to denounce the book from the 
pulpit, and recommend to such of his hearers as had begun 
to purchase it, to commit all they had got to the flames. But 
happily for mankind, the time is gone by for the clergy of any 
denomination to hoodwink the public mind, and keep the peo- 
ple in ignorance by such pitiful artifices — artifices worthy oi 
the church of Rome, and the darkest ages of Popery. Truth 
never shrinks from investigation, but comes boldly to the light, 
and scorns the aid of those misguided friends who would as- 
sist her by such unhallowed weapons. Her motto is — 

" Non tali auxilio, nec defensoribus istis, 
Tempus eget !" 

She cordially approves the maxim, " Prove all things, hold 
fast that which is good." The cause of error and falsehood is 
a dark cause, and needs the weapons of darkness to support it. 
To the honour of the present generation of Methodists, it do- 



PREFACE. 



serves to be recorded, that they are beginning to shake them- 
selves loose from the shackles in which for half a century they 
have been held spell-bound, by the dread of looking into any 
other writings than those which have issued from the Wesley- 
an School. Even their preachers do not hesitate to purchase 
the entire Works of Dr. John Owen" — the prince of mo- 
dern Galvinists — a fact which tells more than a thousand ar- 
guments, how wonderfully the light is spreading in the present 
day! The Arminians and the Galvinists would act wisely in 
rigorously examining each other's creed ; bringing their respec- 
tive systems to the test of the holy scriptures, and abiding firm 
by that, the result cannot but be favourable to the progress of 
truth. Methodism may crumble into ruins as the consequence, 
but I am much mistaken if an equal change do not pass upon 
all the congregational churches of the present day, whose con- 
stitution and external order are as little accordant with the ora- 
cles of God as is the system of Mr. John Wesley. But this 
is not the place for a further discussion of that point. 

As to the complaint that has been raised among the Metho- 
dists, that the editor of the present work is a Calvinist ; though 
almost too contemptible for notice, it may be w^orth while to 
bestow a short paragraph upon it, were it only for the sake of 
disabusing the minds of a few persons who are easily preju- 
diced by an obnoxious sound. Though passing under the 
general denomination of a Calvinist, I am very far indeed from 
subscribing to all that Calvin has written even on the subject 
of the divine decrees ; and it were easy to specify various other 
particulars in which my opinions differ from those of the Geneva 
reformer, as widely indeed as his do from those of Mr. John Wes- 
ley or Dr. Clarke. A mong these are his viewsof the ordinance of 
Christian Baptism, and the nature, constitution, and govern- 
ment of a Christian church. It is scarcely necessary to tell 
any one in the present day, that this great Reformer, like Lu- 
ther, Melancthon, Zuinglius, and others, was an advocate for 
national Christianity ; and instead of bringing back matters to 



PREFACE. 



the standard of the New Testament, collecting the disclp es 
into folds and flocks*' as at the beginning of the Gospel, or- 
ganizing each distinct congregation as an independent body, 
with its scriptural office-bearers of bishops, or Elders, and Dea- 
cons, they contented themselves with drawing a form of Chris- 
tianity over whole districts, provinces, or countries, and ming- 
ling the disciples of Christ, in religious fellowship, with the 
world, as must be the case with all national estabhshments of 
religion, in direct opposition to the practice of the holy apos- 
tles, the example of the first churches, and the express com- 
mand ■>f God, 2 Cor. vi. l6. Truly was their work denomi- 
nated a Reformation ; it was not a return to first principles. 
These great men contented themselves with merely lopping off 
a few of the excrescences of Popery ; but they left the grand 
evil, an unholy alliance between the Church and the State, 
nearly where they found it. Of what real consequence is it, 
whether christian churches, so called, be regulated in their faith 
and worship by a pope and his conclave of Cardinals, a King 
Henry VIII. and his Clergy assembled in convocation, or by 
a General assembly with subordinate Church courts; if the 
New Testament be not taken as the sole rule and directory, 
the apostolic churches as the exclusive pattern, and the deci- 
sions of Christ and his Apostles as the only authority to bind 
the consciences of men— it comes to one and the same thing — 
the whole is a piece of will-worship, and must be of little ac- 
count with him who hath said In vain do they worship me, 
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.'' 

Dr. Clarke was not one of those who confine all their read- 
ing to authors of their own Theological school. We have 
only tc look into his published volumes to be convinced 
that his reading was not restricted to authors of the Arminian 
class. We find him freely acknowledging his obligations to 
Henry Ainsworth — Father Quesnell — Calmet — Pascal — Cud- 
worth — Houbigant — Kennicott — Usher — Calvin — Matthew 
Poole— Juuiusand Treraeliius — Grotius — Hammond— Patrick 



PREFACE. 



— Saurln — Matthew Henry—Scott, and many others, whose 
doctrinal sentiments, in general, were but little in unison with 
his own, especially on the discriminating tenets of Methodism : 
aiul why should not those who are attached to his creed, and 
tenacious of his memory, imitate him in this respect? It is 
surely high time that the Methodists threw away their leading 
strings, and participated in the march of intellect that is found 
among other denominations, and, indeed, of wliich many 
among themselves have lately exhibited a praise- worthy exam- 
ple ! There cannot be a greater mistake than to suppose that 
all excellence is confined to one sect or party, and our wisdom 
consists in " seizing upon truth, w^here'ere 'tis found — on hea- 
then or on Christian ground/' 

Dr. Clarke somewhere, as I remember, takes credit to him- 
self, for having " never written one controversial tract in his 
life,"* This may be true: but surely he would not have 
gone so far as to affirm that he never provoked the writing 
of a controversial tract in others, either to vindicate what they 
considered to be the cause of injured truth, or to wipe off un- 
just aspersions with which he had inconsiderately indulged 
himself in his writings. His ridicule of the Antipoedo-bap- 
tists on account of their conscientious scruples regarding the ad- 
ministration of the ordinance of baptism, and the anecdote 
which he somewhere relates of a man who immersed himself 
thrice in the sea, pronouncing the words 1 baptize thee, 
&c." and recommending his example to the imitation of such 
as were tempted to become Baptists, though issued from the 
press more than forty years ago, is still in the recollection of 
some who are yet alive — and surely it is a species of argumen- 
tation which cannot be commended by any one who duly con- 
siders the subject. These things I once read, fiisce occults, 
more than thirty years ago, and with pungent sorrow of heart 
that they could proceed from the pen of a writer who profess* 

• See Letter to Mr. Joseph Hughes, p. 356 of thia volume. 



Xll 



PREFACE. 



fed to fear Grod ! Should it be pleaded by his friends that it 
took place in the days of his youth, and therefore ought to be 
dealt with leniently, 1 accept the apology; and further add, 
that my only object in mentioning the matter as I now do, is, 
to expose the folly of glorying in man, by reminding the read- 
er that Adam Clarke was not always a//'* perfection." 1 most 
sincerely wish, however, that he had never written any thing 
more reprehensible than this attack upon the Baptists, bad as 
it is ; but when I explore certain parts of his writings, and 
read what he has published regarding the character of the God 
whom I worship, and who declares his Sovereignty to be the 
brightest jewel in his crown, I tremble to find a fellow worm 
of the earth, rushing presumptuously ** where angels fear to 
tread." But on some of these topics, i have touched in the 
following pages, as they passed in review before me, and others 
have been handled by abler pens.* 

It has somehow become fashionable to decry all controversy 
indiscriminately, under the notion that little benefit or edifica- 
tion results from it. This is held as an indisputable maxim by 
those that are settled on their lees, and have no wish to be 
disturbed — persons whose cool indifference indicates their hav- 
ing little at stake, or whose unlimited charity is equally cour- 
teous to truth and error ; yet 1 cannot be persuaded that this 
sage maxim admits of no exception. The most important 
revolution that ever took place in the world, was brought 
about by means of controversy, disputes, and contention, see 
Acts ix. 22. ch. xvii. 17, and xix. 8, 9. And subsequently, 
when Antichrist had slain the witnesses, quashed the contro- 
versy, and cursed all around him into implicit faith, these hor- 
rid chains of darkness were again burst asunder by a free in- 
quiry into the meaning of the holy scriptures, and a contend- 
ing earnestly for the faith once delivered unto the saints. 

• See Mr. Gill Timnis* Remark on the Foreknowledge of God, suggested by 
passages, in Dr. Adam Clarke's Commentary on the New Teslaiiient. 



PREFACE. 



XII] 



And, indeed, the person who can stand neutral in all religious 
disputes, must either have no creed at all or hold it very cheap. 

I merely throw out these remarks in the way of apology, 
for the liberty I have presumed to take throughout the fol- 
lowing pages, in controverting some few of the learned Doc- 
tor's positions, and hope what I have said may not be with- 
out its use, to such persons as shall condescend to peruse this 
volume, by exciting in them a spirit of inquiry into the ground 
and reasons of their assent, and inducing them to bring all their 
religious sentiments to the test of divine revelation, ever re- 
membering that it is by that criterion, the truth or falsehood of 
our opinions must be decided, and not by the writings of Mr. 
Wesley and Dr. Clarke. For its many imperfections I desire 
to apologise ; to me it shall suffice, if, in the opinion of compe- 
tent judges, it be found a faithful record of the principal inci- 
dents in the life of one whose extensive learning I admire ; whose 
zeal, intrepidity, and laborious exertions I venerate ; and whom 
I have always regarded as one of the most extraordinary men 
of the age in which he lived 

Critchell Place, Hoxt<m» 
September, 1834 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

Introduction, 1 
Section I. Some account of Dr. Clarke's family, birth, 

education, and Juvenile History, 4 
II. Dr. Clarke's first acquaintance with the 

Methodists, 30 

III. He leaves Ireland^, and is sent to Kingswood 

School, 73 

IV. Introduction to the work of the Ministry— Is 

appointed to the Bradford Circuit, A. D. 
1782^3, 97 

V. Mr. Clarke's removal to the Norwich Cir- 

^ cuit, A.D.I 783-4, 111 

VI. He is removed to the St Austell Circuit — 
Some account of the late Mr. Samuel 
Drew, A. D. 1784,-5, 117 
VII. Removal of Mr. Clarke to the Plymouth 

Dock Circuit, A. D. 1785—6, 130 
VIII* Mr. Clarke's residence in the Islands of Gruem- 
/ ficy, Jersey &c. &c. — ^and of his Marriage, 
A. D. 1786— 7— 8, 143 
IX. History continued from 1789 to 1793,— 
Bristol Circuit, 1789,— Dublin, 1793,— 
history and death of the Rev. John Wesley, 
M. A. 179 
3C« Biography of Mr. Clarke resumed— his resi- 
dence at Manchester, A. D. 1791 — 2, and 
at Liverpool, 1793—4—6, 254 
XI. Mr. Clarke s removal to the London Circuit, 
where he continues three years, A. D. 
1795-^, 266 
XIL Mr. Clarke's biography continued from 1798 
to 1805, Bristol Circuit, 1798—1801, 
Liverpool Circuit, 1801—3, Manchester 
Circuit, 1803—5. 



CONTENTS. 



XIII. Mr. Clarke receives an appointment to the Lon- 

don Circuit, A. D. 1805. — ^Joins the Com- 
mittee of the Bible Society, and is created 
LL. D., A. D. 1808. 297 

XIV. Dr. Clarke's connection with his Majesty's 

Commissioners on the Public Records of 
the Kingdom, A. D. 1808, 313 
XV. Dr. Clarke's acquaintance with Richard Por- 
son — projects a new edition of the 
London Polyglott — Publishes the first 
Part of his Commentary, A. D. 1808—10, 327 
XVI. History continued from 1810, to his settle- 
ment at Millbrook, Lancashire, in 1815, 358 
XVII. Dr. Clarke makes a tour through part of 
Scotland into Ireland — Receives two Bud- 
hist Priests from Ceylon &c. A. D. 1815 — 
21, 378 
XVIII. Biography continued from 1820 to 1825— 
takes a lively interest in the Shetland is- 
lands — visits Ireland and Scotland, 402 
XIX. Dr. Clarke removes to Haydon Hall, Middle- 
sex, where he finishes his Commentary on 
the Bible, 1825—6, 427 
XX. Journey to the Shetland Islands, A. D. 

1826— a second visit, A. D. 1827, 442 
XXI. Dr. Clarke's minor productions and fugitive 

pieces, 469 
XXII. Dr. Clarke's Commentary on the Old and New 
Testament, including Strictures on the 
. ,< biographer of Robert Hall, 685 
^XXIII. Or. Clarke's biography resumed and continu- 
ed — ^revisits Ireland, A. D. 1830 — esta- 
blishes schools there, &o. &c., 606 
XXIV. Some account of Dr. Clarke's last days — 
loss of several friends — at^^rtds the Duke of 
Sussex's levee — illness, death, and fune- 
. TTrr, t 832, 629 

-fR- XXV. R^vkvt f th- C\ar»*>icrof Dr. Clarke, from 

tho penn of 4^3 -ontoiu^e^ary friends, 658 

M .A '.hr 



MEMOIRS 



OF THE 

LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

OF 

THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



** Ah '. who can tell how hard it is to climb. 

The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar ; 
Ah ! who can tell how many a soul sublime, 
Has felt the influence of malignant star, 
And waged with Fortune an eternal war I" 

So sang the " Minstrel" of the North, in strains as sweet as ever 
poet used, and which have not often found a finer exemplification 
than in the history of the individual who is the subject of this 
memoir. Of him it may with truth be said that " his beginning- 
was small, but his latter end was greatly increased." Adam Clarke 
ranks among the favoured but enviable few who have been the 
architects of their own fame. Humble indeed was his origin, and 
tardy his progress in the earlier part of life, but he lived to achieve 
a high reputation for learning, piety, and usefulness; and his 
memory is deservedly embalmed in the recollections of all the 
friends of literature, and the extensive circle of acquaintance among 
whom it was his lot more particularly to move. 

If, as Cicero tells us, " true glory consists in doing what de- 
serves to be written, and in writing what deserves to be read" — the 
friends of Dr. Clarke may justly and fearlessly claim that honour 
for him ; nor need they complain if his story be narrated by others 
besides his own family, provided nothing be said of him but what 
is true. An example, such as his, exhibiting native talent and 
genius making their way from obscurity to the pinnacle of fame, 
unaided by the advantages of riches, patronage, or power, but 

B 



MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



forcing their progress silently and slowly 'midst discouragements 
and disasters, through evil report and good report, until it attracts 
the gaze of the multitude, deserves to be universally held up to 
public view, as an encouragement to the timid, and an incentive to 
perseverance. 

Modest, unassuming, and diffident, unaccustomed to mingle with 
the crowd, except when propelled by an imperious sense of duty 
in his ministerial capacity, and courting retirement rather than 
ostentatious display. Dr. Clarke " pursued the even tenor of 
his way," through the greater part of a long and active life, 

alike to fortune and to fame unknown." He left it to posterity 
to form an estimate of his character, from his conduct, ministry, 
and writings, and these will raise to his memory an imperishable 
monument, one more durable than brass, and not to be impaired 
by age or time. In this he acted wisely : superior talents, especi- 
ally when devoted to the cause of religion and virtue, will always 
command a tribute of respect from those whose praise is worth re- 
garding ; and indeed the public is so deeply interested in the mat- 
ter, that the names of such persons will always find a place in the 
records of honourable fame 

Sed hactenus hsec ! It has been remarked, and with but too 
much truth, that the writers of particular lives are apt to be partial 
and prejudiced in favour of their subject, and to give us sometimes 
panegyric instead of histoiy. They work up their characters as 
painters do their portraits, taking the praise of then* art to consist 
not in copying, but in adorning nature; not in drawing a just re- 
semblance, but in giving a fine picture, or exalting the man into 
the hero.* This is an abuse of biography, which it will be neces- 
sary to guard against in the present instance. Some excuse may 
be found for the members of Dr. Clarke's own family, should they 
have fallen into this error — excuses which would not so readily be 
conceded to others who should attempt to write his life and who 
have not their partialities to contend with. The child is not likely 
to be the first to descry its parent's failings, or blazon them to the 
world : nor, indeed, would it comport with filial affection to act 
such a part. But what is pardonable in one case would be censu- 

* New and General Biographical Dictionary. Art. Middleton (Coxyers). 



OF THE RET. ADAM CLARKE, LL.ll., T A. S. 



3 



rable in another. Dr. Clarke's private character was unassailable, 
nor did the breath of calumny ever presume to blow upon it. But 
his doctrinal sentiments and published opinions fall under another 
consideration. The good man occasionally sported paradoxes ; as 
when he transmuted the serpent that deceived our first parents into 
an Oran-outang— made Solomon an apostate — and Judas a peni- 
tent. These things have already been exclaimed against through 
the medium of the press, and held up to public reprehension.* 
They are consequently a fair topic of investigation, and critical 
remark. But the matter does not rest there ; we have been told 
from the same quarter, that Dr. Clarke's Commentary is " the 
most outrageous for party principles of any thing that has of late 
years been written" — and that " he was so void of all taste and 
discrimination, his judgment was not to be trusted in any case 
that in the least interfered with his own speculative peculiarities." 
Now every friend of Dr. Clarke must necessarily view this in the 
light of a sweeping attack upon his literary character, and conse- 
quently feel the desirableness of preparing an antidote to the poi- 
son thus diffused. The discussion cannot be entered upon with 
any propriety in this place : but when the fit opportunity arrives 
it will be no impertinent subject of inquiry, how much of this is true, 
and how much is to be placed to the score of prejudice and passion. 

* See Morris' Life of Robert Hall, p. 324. The whole paragraph indeed 
is so extraordinary that it is here inserted. 

*' Dr. Mason (of New York) said, that the Commentary of a late eccentric 
but distinguished writer had [begun to be] reprinted at New York ; but it had 
produced general disappointment and was therefore discontinued. It was ex- 
pected that its voluminous contents would have provided a fund for English 
Catholicism and sound critique, instead of which it was the most outrageous 
for party principles of any thing that had of late years been written, and many 
of its criticisms were evidently feeble and pedantic. The work abounds with 
evident paradoxes, transforming the serpent into an Oran-outang, making 
Solomon an apostate and Judas a penitent, with many other such like reveries 
to countenance a set of dogmas and pre-conceived opinions, sparing no part 
of criticism which militates against them. The Commentator possessed con- 
siderable information, or, as Mr. Hall said, he was ** an ocean of learning," 
but so void of all taste and just discrimination, that his judgment was not to 
be trusted in any case that in the least interferes with his speculative pecu- 
liarities." 



MEMOIRS OF THE LIl-E, MIiMSTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



SECTION I. 

Some Account of Dr. Clarke's family , birth, education, and 
iuvenile history. 

Adam Clarke, the subject of this memoir, though a native of 
Ireland, was paternally of English extraction. The family, ac- 
cording to tradition, after residing for time immemorial in 
England, went over to Ireland in the seventeenth century, and 
settled in the county of Antrim, where they had considerable es- 
tates. He himself informs us that his father, John Clarke, was 
educated with a view to the ministry of the Protestant established 
church, and studied successively at Edinburgh and Glasgow, 
where he took the degree of Master of Arts, and afterwards enter- 
ed a Sizar of Trinity College, Dublin, at a time when classical 
merit alone could gain such an admission. His continuance there, 
however, was but of short duration. A premature marriage, by 
which he violated the rules of the college, terminated his studies, 
and blasted his prospects in the church. The female to whom he 
had united himself, and who was the mother of Adam Clarke, was 
of Scottish extraction, a descendant of the M'Leans, of Mull, a 
woman of excellent character, and who made him one of the best and 
most affectionate of wives. Abandoning all thoughts of the clerical 
profession, he commenced school-master, "a creditable but gain- 
less profession," and so inadequate to the support of an increasing 
family, that he was tempted to leave the country and cross the 
Atlantic. 

About the middle of the last century, the rage for emigrating to 
America was very prevalent in Ireland. Heavy taxation, oppres- 
sive landlords, and the little encouragement afforded to either 
genius or industry, rendered Ireland, though one of the finest 
countries under the sun, no eligible place for men of talents of 
any kind to look forward to an adequate provision for a rising 
family. On the other hand, America, thin in her population and 
extensive in her territory, held out promises of easily acquired 
property, and lures of various kinds, to induce the sons of des- 
titution and wretchedness in England, Scotland, and Ireland, 
to remove thither. Mr. John Clarke was among the number 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



5 



of those who indulged these golden hopes, and was further 
tempted by the prospect of obtaining a professorship in one of the 
newly raised Universities in the new world. In an evil hour, says 
his son, he broke up his establishment, sold his property, and with 
his wife and infant son, proceeded to Londonderry, where they en- 
gaged their passage in a merchant vessel to cross the Atlantic. 
They had actually embarked and were on the eve of sailing, when 
Mr. John Clarke's father arrived from the country, went on board, 
expostulated wdth his son, and prevailed on him to change his 
purpose, and to return with him to the country. All this took place 
about the year 1758 or 1759 previous to the birth of Adam Clarke. 

For some considerable time after this, Mr. John Clarke was quite 
undetermined as to his future plans of life. He had wasted his little 
property in making preparations for the voyage to America, and 
now found to his cost that it was much easier to unsettle, than to 
establish; a maxim which we often see demonstrated in human 
life — for, according to the old proverb, " the hand which cannot 
build a hovel may demolish a temple." Various projects which 
appeared fair at a distance, on a nearer approach were found to 
elude the grasp of his expectation. He was now reduced to con- 
siderable straits and difSculties: all his remaining property was 
expended ; and, alternately elated and depressed with promises and 
disappointments, he had to begin the world anew equally desti- 
tute of advantages and means. In this state of things, nothing 
presented itself to him but a choice of difficulties — friends and inter- 
nal resources had equally failed, and he now took up his residence 
in an obscure village called Moybeg, in the county of Londonderry, 
and there, and under these very trying circumstances, 

Adam Clarke, the subject of this memoir, was born, it is thought, 
in the year 1760, but neither the year, month, nor day can now be 
satisfactorily ascertained. He was baptized in the parish church 
by his uncle, the Rev. John Tracy, the rector, who had married 
his mother's sister; but on application being made at a subse- 
quent period, to obtain a copy of the baptismal register, the answer 
returned was : " The archives of the church have been carefully 
searched, but no register during Mr. Tracy's incumbency has been 
found, none having been kept during that period ; or if kept, since 



6 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

irrecoverably lost." Mr. Tracy died sometime between 1760 and 
1762, and as Adam Clarke was baptized by him, he must have 
been born within that period— but the day and month are as un- 
certain as the year. His name he is said to have owed to his 
grandfather and grandmother then living, who wished him to be 
called Adam in memory of a beloved son of theirs, who had died 
of the small pox when only six years of age ; and they engaged 
that as soon as he could walk alone, they would take him as their 
own, and be at the whole charge of his bringing up. * 

Adam, as already mentioned, had a brother, three years older 
than himself, who was called Tracy, after his uncle, the clergyman, 
who, having no children of his own, adopted him, took him to his 
own house and spoiled him by excessive indulgence. On the other 
hand, the subject of this memoir, met with little of that kind of 
treatment, being comparatively neglected, nursed with little care, 
and often left to shift for himself. He was no spoiled child, but 
always corrected when he deserved it. Through this mode of 
bringing up he became inured to hardship — and though by no 
means a lusty child, had more than ordinary strength for his age. 
In after life it was usual with him to thank God for the hardy 
manner in which he was brought up, and to say, " my heavenly 
father saw that I was likely to meet with many rude blasts in 
journeying through life, and he prepared me in infancy for the lot 
his providence destined for me ; so that through his mercy I have 
been enabled to carry a profitable childhood up to hoary hairs." 
He would add, " He knew that I must walk alone through life, and 
therefore set me on my feet right early, that I might be prepared 
by long practice for the work I was appointed to perform." 

At the proper age, he went to reside with his grand parents, but 
little Adam could ill brook confinement in the house by the side of 
his grandmother. To him it was far more desirable to roam about 

* The grandfather, here mentioned, and whose name was William Clarke, 
was an intelligent, religious man, by trade a builder, and the eldest of six 
bi'others, who mostly settled in the vicinity of Maghera, Magherafelt, and 
near the borders of the beautiful lake of Lough Neagh. The youngest of 
these brothers chose a militaiy life, and was slain with his general, the cele- 
brated Wolfe, at the siege of Quebec, October 18th, 1759. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



7 



the walls and hedges : and there being- a draw-well into which he 
was particularly fond of looking, when it was left uncovered, his 
grandmother, apprehensive of danger, sent him home to his parents. 

When about five years of age, he took the small pox in the 
natural way, and it is a curious description that he has left us of 
the usual treatment then followed. The patient was covered up 
with a load of clothes in a warm bed, the curtains drawn close to 
ward off every breath of air, and some spirituous liquors carefully 
given, in order to strike the pock out, as it was termed ! No 
wonder that such treatment of an inflammatory disorder carried 
thousands to an untimely grave. Adam was covered with pustules 
from head to foot ; but no authority, parental or otherwise, could 
confine him to his bed. Whenever an opportunity presented itself^ 
he stole away, and ran naked into the open air. Thus he adopted 
the cool regimen, had a merciful termination of the disorder, and 
escaped without a single mark. 

When young Clarke was first put to school, he gave a very un- 
favourable presage of his future eminence, for he was a very inapt 
scholar, and found it difficult to acquire the knowledge of the 
alphabet. For this dulness he was unmercifully censured and un- 
reasonably chastised ; which was so far from eliciting genius, that 
it produced an increase of obtusity, insomuch that he himself began 
to despair of ever being able to acquire any knowledge by means 
of letters. There is something peculiarly interesting in the narra- 
tive which he himself has given us of this matter, on which account 
we shall extract it at length. 

His education scarcely deserved the name, for the circumstances 
of the family requiring the attention of the boys to the small farm 
which the father held, the two brothers, Tracy and Adam, were 
obliged to attend their father's school only on alternate days, and 
each rehearsed to the other, on his return, the lessons which he 
himself had acquired. It was not until he arrived at eight years of 
age, that Adam was led to entertain hopes of future improvement, 
and those were brought about in the following singular manner. 

A neighbouring schoolmaster calling at the school where he was 
endeavouring to put vowels a,nd consonants together^ was requested 
by the teacher to assist in hearing a few of the lads their lessons 



MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



Adam was the last that went up, not a little ashamed of his own 
deficiency. He however managed to hobble through his lesson, 
though in a very indifferent manner, and the teacher apologised to 
the stranger, remarking, that "the lad was a grievous dunce!" 
The assistant, however, clapping young Clarke on the head, said, 
" never fear. Sir ; this lad will make a good scholar yet." This 
was the first thing that checked his own despair of learning, and 
infused hope into his mind. 

Having with great labour got through the " Reading made easy," 
learnt to spell pretty correctly, and to read the New Testament 
with tolerable ease, his father, who wished if possible, to make him 
a scholar, put him into " Lilly's Latin Grammar." This was new 
and painful work to little Clarke, who was stumbled by almost the 
first sentence that he was ordered to get by heai^; not because he 
could not commit it to memory, but because he could not com- 
prehend the meaning of the following lines : " In speech be these 
eight parts following : noun, pronoun, verb, participle, declined : 
adverb, conjunction, preposition, interjection, undeclined." He, 
however, committed this to memory, and repeated it and many 
of its fellows, without understanding one tittle of the matter ; for 
no pains were taken to enable him to see the reason of those things 
which he was commanded to get by rote ; and as the understand- 
ing was not informed, the memory was uselessly burthened. 

In reviewing these matters in a subsequent part of life. Dr. Clarke 
remarks "how injudicious is the general mode of dealing with 
those who are called dull boys ! To every child learning must be 
a task, and as no young person is able to comprehend the maxim, 
that the acquisition of learning will only compensate the toil, encou- 
ragement and kind words from the teacher, are indispensably neces- 
sary to induce the learner to undergo the toil of these gymnastic 
exercises. Wilful indolence and neglect should be reprehended 
and punished; but where genius has not yet been developed, nor 
reason acquired its proper seat, the mildest methods are likely to 
be the most efficient; and the smallest progress should be watched, 
and commended, that it may excite to farther attention and dili- 
gence. But there are very few teachers who possess the happy art 
of developing genius. They have not a sufficiency of penetration to 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARICE, LL,D,, F.A.S. 9 

find out the bent or characteristic propensity of tlie minds of the 
pupils, in ordtr to give them the requisite excitement and direction. 
In utter despair of ever being able to make any progress, he took up 
an English Testament, sneaked into an English class, and rose with 
them to say a lesson. The master pei'ceiving it, said in a terrific 
tone, " sir, what brought you here ? Where is your latin gram- 
mar ? " Adam burst into tears, and said, with a piteous tone, / 
cannot ham it. He had now reason to expect all the severity of 
the rod : but the master getting a little moderated, perhaps moved 
by his tears, contented himself with saying, " go, sirrah, and take 
up your grammar : if you do not speedily get that lesson, I shall 
pull your ears as long as Jowler's, (a great dog belonging to the 
premises) and you shall be a beggar to the day of your death." 

These were terrible words, and seemed to express the sentence 
of a ruthless and unavoidable destiny. He retired and sat down 
by the side of a young gentleman v/ith v/hom he had been in class, 
but who, unable to lag behind with his dulness, requested to be se- 
parated, that he might advance by himself. Here he was received 
with the most bitter taunts, and poignant insults. " What ! have 
you not learned that lesson yet ? O what a stupid ass ! You and I 
began together ; you are now only in As in present i, and I am in 
Syntax !" And then with cruel mockings, began to repeat the last 
lesson he had learned. The effect of this was astonishing— young- 
Clarke was roused as from a lethargy ; he felt as he expressed 
himself as if something had broken within him: his mind in a mo- 
ment was all light. Though he felt indescribably mortified, he did 
not feel indignant. " What," said he in himself, " shall I ever be a 
dunce, and the butt of these fellows' insults ?" He snatched up his 
book, in a few moments committed the lesson to memory, got the 
construction speedily — went up and said it, without missing a 
word! — took up another lesson, acquired it almost immediately, 
said this also without a blemish, and in the course of that day 
wearied the master with his so often repeated returns to say les- 
sons : and committed to memory all the latin verses with their 
English construction, in which, heavy and tedious Lilly has de- 
scribed the four conjugations with their rules, exceptions, &c. &c. 
Nothing like this had ever appeai-ed in the school before — the boys 

C 



10 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

were astonished — admiration took the place of mockings and in- 
sults, and from that hour, it may be said from that moment, he 
found his memory at least capable of embracing every subject that 
was brought before it, and his own long sorrow was turned into 
instant joy ! 

Such is the account which Dr. Clarke has given us of his own 
introduction to the world of letters : and singular enough it is — 
bordering upon the romantic. Who would have imagined, that a 
boy of such an obtuse intellect could ever have risen into " an 
ocean of learning," as the late Mr. Robert Hall pronounced him — 
and unquestionably, without an hyperbole, the most universal 
scholar of his age ! Had the narration come to us from any other 
pen than his own, we should have suspected some exaggeration or 
embellishment in the case ; but the character of Dr. Clarke is a 
full guarantee for its faithfulness ; and marvellous as it certainly is, 
we credit it to the very letter. For such a revolution in the mind 
of a child it will not be easy to account. He declares that he was 
not idle, and though playful, never wished to indulge this disposi- 
tion at the expence of instruction. His own felt incapacity was a 
most oppressive burthen, and the anguish of his mind was evi- 
denced by the tears which often flowed from his eyes. Reproof 
and punishment produced neither change nor good, for there was 
nothing to be corrected to which they could apply. Threatenings 
were equally unavailing, because there was no wilful indisposition 
to study and application ; and the fruitless desire to learn, shewed 
at least the regret of the want of that ability for the acquisition of 
which, he would have been content to make any kind of sacrifices. 
The Doctor's own reflections on this mental phenomenon deserve 
regard, and are as follow. 

" At last this ability was strangely acquired, but not by slow 
degrees ; there was no conquest over inaptitude and dulness by 
persevenng and gradual conflict. The power seemed generated in 
a moment : and in a moment there was a transition from darkness 
to light, from mental imbecility to intellectual vigour ; and no 
means nor excitement were brought into operation but such as 
have been now mentioned. The reproaches of his school-fellow 
was the spark which fell on the gunpowder and inflamed it in- 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., E. A. S. 11 

stantly. The inflammable matter was there before, but the spark 
was wanting. This would be a proper subject for the discussion 
of those who write on the Philosophy of the Human Mind." 

The detail has been made the more particular, because he ( Dr. 
Clarke) ever considered it as one of the most important circum- 
stances in his life ; and he has often mentioned it as a singular 
providence which gave a strong characteristic colouring to his sub- 
sequent life. Besides, the account may not be unuseful to those 
who have the care of youth : and it may teach the masters of the 
rod and ferula, that those are not the instruments of instruction, 
though exceedingly proper for the correction of the obstinate and 
indolent — that motives exciting to emulation and to the prevention 
of disgrace may be, at least in some cases, more powerful than any 
punishment that can be inflicted on the flesh. A thorough study 
of the philosophy of the human mind, and what constitutes indivi- 
dual character, seem essentially necessary qualifications for all 
those to whom the instruction of the rising generation is confided : 
and if this be so, there are few persons properly qualified to be 
competent schoolmasters. 

From what has been already said, the depressed state of the 
family may be easily gathered ; nevertheless, provision was made 
for the education of the two sons, the best that the disadvantageous 
circumstances of the family would admit of. Mr. Clarke, the father, 
rented a small farm, with the view of helping out the pittance 
arising from his school, his professional labours being inadequately 
remunerated at best, and often ill paid by the parents of his pupils. 
He taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, book-keeping, trigo- 
nometry and navigation, with the latin and greek classics — on the 
following terms, which deserve mention as a literary curiosity. — 
Reading l|d. per week — Writing 2d. — Writing and Arithmetic 4d. 
— Latin and Greek 7d. or 7s. per quarter. These were the highest 
terms in that country in the latter end of the eighteenth century ; 
and such was the ratio after which literary talent was remunerated. 
According to Dr. Clarke's estimate of his honoured parents ac- 
quirements, he may have been the very identical pedagogue dc 
scribed by Goldsmitli in his Deserted Village — 



12 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



** Beside yon straggling fence that skirts the way 
With blossom'd furze, unprofitably gay ; 
There, in his noisy mansion, skill'd to rule. 
The village master taught his little school : 
A man severe he was, and stern to view : 
I knew him well, and every truant kaew. 
Well had the boding tremblers learn'd to trace 
The day's disasters in his morning face : 
Full well they laugh'd with counterfeited glee 
At all his jokes, for many a joke had he : 
Full well the busy whisper circling round, 
Conveyed the dismal tidings when he frown'd : 
Yet he was kind, or if severe in aught, 
The love he bore to learning was in fault. 
The village all declar'd how much he knew : 
'Twas certain he could write and cypher too ; 
Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage. 
And ev'n the story ran that he could guage. 
In arguing, too, the parson owned his skill. 
For ev'n tho' vanquish'd he could argue still : 
While words of learned lengtli and thundering sound, 
Amaz'd the gazing rustics rang'd around : 
And still tKey gaz'd, and still the wonder grew. 
That one small head should carry all he knew." 

The son assures us that his father was a good penman — tho- 
roughly acquainted with arithmetic, and taught it well — and of his 
classical knowledge, we have evidence in the fact, that he was a 
great admirer of Virgil's Georgics, the philosophy of which he ap- 
plied to the cultivation of his own farm ! One may figure to one's- 
self, something of the laughable feelings of the good doctor, when 
he penned the following amusing paragraph concerning his vene- 
rable father. " Without particularly calculating that the agricul- 
tural rules in that elegant work, were in many respects applicable 
only to the soil and climate of Italy, Lat. 45, he applied them in a 
widely different climate, to a soil extremely dissimilar, in I^at. 55, 
N. This, in course, was not likely to bring about the most bene- 
ficial results." No, certainly, but it was very characteristic of 
Paddy ! 

The school in which Adam Clarke had his classical education, 
he tells us was situated in tlie skirt of a wood^ on a gently rising 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. J)., F. A. S. 



13 



eminence, behind which a hill thickly covered with bushes of dif- 
ferent kinds and growth, rose to a considerable height. In front 
of this little building, there was a great variety of prospect, both of 
hill and dale, where, in their seasons, all the operations of hus- 
bandry might be seen distinctly. The boys who could be trusted, 
were pennitted in the fine weather, to go into the wood, to study 
their lessons. In this most advantageous situation, Adam read the 
Eclogues and Georgics of Virgil, where he had almost every scene 
described in these poems, exhibited in real life before his eyes. He 
has often said, if he ever enjoyed real intellectual happiness it was 
in that place, and in that line of study. These living scenes were 
often finer and more impressive comments on the Roman Poet, 
than all the laboured notes and illustrations of the Delphin Editors 
and the Variorum Critics. 

Dr. Clarke has recorded one circumstance relative to the disad- 
vantages attending his education which is worth mentioning. Be- 
fore and after school hours was the only time in which his father 
could do any thing in his tittle farm : the rest of the labour, except 
in those times when several hands must be employed to plant and 
sow, or reap the harvest, &c. was performed by his two sons, which 
must unavoidably have cramped their education. To accomplish 
this, the two brothers went day about to school ; and he v/ho had 
the advantage of the day's instruction gained and remembered all 
he could, and imparted on his return to him who continued in the 
farm, all the knowledge he had acquired in the day. Thus tliey 
were alternately instructors and scholars, and each taught and 
learned for the other. 

When Adam was about eight or nine years of age, he received 
an afiront from one of his school-fellows, to avenge which he lam- 
pooned the latter most unmercifully in a doggrel poem of 175 
verses, all composed one Saturday afternoon, after the breaking up 
of school : and not being able to write small hand, so as to be suf- 
ficiently intelligible ; like other great men, he dictated to his brother, 
who, in this instance, condescended to become his Amanuensis. 
Some fragments of this precious specimen of precocity of genius, 
he has himself given to the public, that they may be compared with 
the lines of Sam. Johnson on the premature death of " good Master 



14 MEMOIRS ()!• THli lAlE, MINISTRY, Ax\!> WRITINGS, 

Duck." It is entitled " The Parallel : a Poem : or Verses on 
William W — k — n, of Portglenone, in the county of Antrim, de- 
scribing the base extraction — high insignificance and family con- 
nexions, of the said William W — k — n, alias, Pigmy Will." 

Availing himself of the story of " the pigmies and the cranes," 
as referred to in Homer, Pliny, and Juvenal, and which he says 
he learned, among other things, from Littleton's Latin Dictionary^ 
he describes his antagonist the pigmy," as falling into the hands 
of a crane, when he thus proceeds— 

At tliie unhappy change of place, 

Will made a haggard rueful face : 

And earnestly desired to be 

Rid of his potent enemy. 

The crane fast sped, now high, now low. 

With her poor caitiff screaming foe ; 

Till coming o'er Portnegro town, 

She loos'd her fangs and let him down ; 

And he, poor wight, like old king log, 

Came plump directly to a bog." 

From this time he began to imbibe an ardent thirst for reading, 
and to gratify his passion for books, he was content to undergo 
any privations, and submit to any species of hardship. The pence 
that he and his brother got for being good boys and doing extra 
work, &c. they expended in the purchase of books. At first they 
got penny and twopenny histories ; afterwards sixpenny books, and 
so on, as their minds were improved, and their pence increased. 
In process of time, a little library was formed, and a catalogue 
taken of it, which is preserved as a curiosity. After the Reading- 
made Easy and Dilworth's Spelling, there was the famous and 
delightful histories of Tom Thumb ; Jack the Giant Killer ; Jack 
Horner ; Guy, Earl of Warwick ; Tom Hickathrift ; Seven Cham- 
pions of Christendom ; Robinson Crusoe ; Valentine and Orson ; 
Fairy Tales ; Arabian Nights ; Chevy Chase ; The Gentle Shep- 
herd ; The Pilgrim s Progress ; JEsop's Fables ; Holy War ; " cum 
multis aliis quae nunc prescribere longum est,' says the Doctor. 

The whole library consisted of not less than five and thirty dis- 
tinct tracts— no doubt, the yourg Clarkes dignified them with the 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



15 



title of volumes, and these were the basis of a large stock of book 
knowledge, and, as a foundation of one of the most select and 
valuable private libraries in the kingdom. 

** From small beginnings mighty fabrics rise." 

Among the articles above enumerated there were three or four, 
which the doctor was disposed to regard as having contributed 
their influence on his future life and studies; these were the Arabian 
Nights' Entertainments, Robinson Crusoe, and L'Estrange's Fables 
of iEsop. The reading of the first of these gave him that decided 
taste for Oriental History, which he found useful to him in all his 
Biblical studies. It incited in him a thirst after a more intimate 
acquaintance with the customs and manners of Eastern nations, so 
strange and curious to an European, and he never lost sight of it 
till Providence placed within his reach the means of gaining an 
intimate acquaintance with the principal languages of the Eastern 
world. Robinson Crusoe he read as a real history; and in after 
life he was of opinion that no true tale was ever better or more 
naturally told; and none merely fictitious, was ever told more im- 
posingly. No history, true or feigned, had ever a more direct 
moral tendency. He has often being heard to say, that from read- 
ing Robinson Crusoe, he learned more expressly his duty to God 
and to his parents, and a firmer belief in divine Providence than from 
all he read or heard from books or men during his early years : and 
as soon as they could read, he took care to put that history into 
the hands of his own children, from a conviction, that in it there 
were combined the finest lessons, and maxims of religion and 
morality, with every thing interesting and fascinating in historical 
detail. The good impressions made upon his mind by reading that 
narrative, he thought, were never effaced ! 

With the Fables of iEsop, too, he was much delighted. From 
the countryman whose waggon stuck fast in the mud, he learned the 
necessity of strenuous exertion while expecting divine assistance. 
He often applied the words, " thou fool ! whip thy horses, and set 
thy shoulder to the wheels, and call upon Hercules, and he will 
help thee" — to those who expected God by a miracle to bring them 
out of their difficulties, while sitting in indolence and supine self- 



iVI MEMOIRS OF THF. LIFE, MINISTRY, AM) WRITINGS, 

despair. — -The fable of the " Lark and her young ones," taught 
him the folly of expecting that help from friends and neighbours 
which a man owed to himself, and which was within the reach of 
his own means. From the fable of the Farmer who wished min 
and fair weather in those times wliich he should judge most proper, 
and at harvest time had no crop," he learned the folly of human 
anxiety concerning the weather, and the necessity of depending on 
divine providence. The " Braggart " who pretended to have cleared 
so many yards at one leap in the Island of Rhodes, shewed him 
the vanity of empty boasting ; and of pretending to have done some 
mighty feat in some distant country, which his friends were at 
liberty not to credit till they had seen him perform the same at 
home. " The Dog in the Manger" ; " The Tmmpeter taken pris- 
oner" ; " The sick Kite" ; " The Daw in borrowed feathers," &c. &c. 
were all to him lessons of instruction, from which he borrowed some 
of the chief maxims which governed his life. 

As to his religious education, we are informed that he owed 
much to the training and examjDie of an excellent mother. She 
was a woman decidedly religious, of the Presbyterian or old Puri- 
tanic school. She had been well catechised in her youth, and was 
well acquainted with her Bible. She taught her children the fear 
of God, caused them to read and reverence the holy scriptures, and 
endeavoured to impress the most interesting parts on their minds. 
If at any time they acted wrong, she uniformly had recourse to the 
Bible, to strengthen her reproofs and to deepen conviction. With 
the contents of that blessed book she v/as so conversant, that there 
was scarcely a delinquency, for the condemnation of which she 
could not easily find an appropriate text. She seemed to find it 
on the first opening and would generally say, " See what God has 
guided my eye to in a moment." Her own reproofs, her children 
could in some measure bear ; but when she had recourse to the 
Bible, they were terrified out of measure ; such an awful sense had 
they of God's word, and the majesty of the author. Of her happy 
and successful method of administering reproofs, and the impression 
made by them, the following anecdote is recorded. 

One day the subject of this Memoir disobej^ed his mother, and 
the disobedience was accompanied by some look or gesture that 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 17 

indicated an undervaluing of her authority. This was a high 
affront : she immediately flew to the Bible, and opened on Prov. 
XXX. 17. which she read and commented on in a most awful man- 
ner : " The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey 
his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young 
eagles shall eat it." Poor Adam was cut to the heart, thinking 
the words were immediately sent from heaven ! He went out into 
the field with a troubled spirit, and was musing on this horrible 
denunciation of divine displeasure, when the hoarse croak of a 
raven sounded to his conscience an alarm more terrible than the 
cry of fire at midnight. He looked up and soon perceived this 
most ominous bird, and actually supposing it to be the raven of 
which the text spoke, coming to pick out his eyes, he clapped his 
hands on them with the utmost speed and trepidation, and ran 
towards the house as fast as the state of his alarm and perturba- 
tion could admit that he might escape the impending vengeance ! 

Dr. Clarke was of opinion that the severe creed of his mother 
led her more frequently to represent the Supreme Being as a God 
of justice, than as a God of mercy, the consequence of which was, 
that her children dreaded the Almighty, and obeyed only through 
fear. He admitted, however, that this was, perhaps, the only im- 
pression that could be made, to awaken conscience and keep it 
awake. Nevertheless, to the religious instructions of his mother, 
under God, he was disposed to attribute that fear of the divine 
majesty which at all times prevented him from taking pleasure in 
sin. " My mother's reproofs and terrors," he would say " never left 
me, till I sought and found the salvation of God. And sin was 
generally so burthensome to me, that I was glad to hear of deliver- 
ance from it. She taught me such reverence for the 'Bible, that if 
I had it in my hand even for the purpose of studying a chapter in 
order to say it as a lesson, and had been disposed with my class- 
fellows to sing, whistle a tune, or be facetious, I dared not do 
either while the book was in my hands. In such cases I always 
shut it and laid it down beside me. Who will dare to lay this to 
the charge of superstition ? " 

That such a mother would teach her children to pray is matter 
of course, Before they went to bed, every night, they regularly 

D 



18 



MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



kneeled down successively at her knee and said the Lord's Prayer 
imploring also a blessing on father, mother, relatives, and friends. 
Those who were six years old and upwards, also repeated the Apos- 
tles' Creed. She had also a morning prayer, and an evening prayer, 
which she taught them; but by whom composed, is not said 
These prayers were in verse and as they are simple and expressive 
and may be useful to others, they deserve to be known. 

AN EVENING PRAYER, FOR A YOUNG CH7XD. 

I go to my bed as to my grave, 

And pray to God my life to save. 

But if I die before I wake, 

I pray to God my soul to take. 

Dear Jesus now to thee I en,-, 

To grant me mercy e're I die ! 

To grant me mercy, and send grace, 

That heaven may be my dwelling place." 



A MORNING PRAYER, FOR A CHILD. 

*' Preserve me, Lord, amidst the crowd. 
From every thought that's vain or proud, 
And raise my wandering mind to see, 
How good it is to trust in xiiEE ! 
From all the enemies of thy truth, 
Do thou, O Lord, preserve my youth : 
And raise my mind from worldly cares, 
From youthful sins and youthful snares ! 
Lord, tho' my heart's as hard as stone, 
Let seeds of early grace be sown ; 
Still watered by thy heavenly love. 
Till they spring up to joys above." 

These she caused them to conclude with the following short 

DOXOLOGY, 

" Give to the Father praise, 
And glorj' to the Son ; 
And to the Spirit of his gracCy 
Be equal honour done ! " 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



19 



For these little devotional pieces. Dr. Clarke ever felt a fond 
attachment, and used to say, they contained the first breathings 
of his mind towards God ; and that, even many years after he had 
known the power of God to salvation, he continued to repeat them, 
as long as he could with propriety use the term youth. Mrs. Clarke 
strictly enjoined upon her children and domestics the sanctification 
of the Lord's day : no manner of servile work was allowed to be 
done in the family, and the children were taught from their earliest 
years to keep holy the sabbath day. On that day she took the 
opportunity to catechise and instruct her offspring, would read a 
chapter, si-ng a psalm, and then go to prayer. While reading, she 
accustomed the children who had discernment, to note some parti- 
cular verse in the reading, and repeat it to her when prayer was 
over. This engaged their attention and operated in the way of 
impressing the word on their minds as well as on their memories. 
She obliged them also to get by heart the Church Catechism and 
the Assembly's Shorter Catechism. By this means the children 
had the creed of their father who was a churchman, and that of 
their mother who was a Presbyterian. The children went occa- 
sionally to the presbyterian meeting, but they gave a decided pre- 
ference to the episcopal church. 

Notwithstanding that the parents of Adam Clarke, belonged to 
different Christian communities, they managed to steer clear of 
any animosities on religious subjects. The parish clergyman and 
the presbyterian parson were equally welcome to the house; and 
the husband and wife cheerfully allowed each other to go on their 
own way ; nor were any means used by either to determine their 
children to prefer one sect to the other. The parents contented 
themselves with teaching them to fear God and look for redemption 
through the blood of Chiist, considering all otiier matters of com- 
paratively minor importance. 

In process of time, young Clarke began to be assailed with the 
usual snares and temptations of the world. Among these, music 
and dancing exerted their full force upon him. As it was fashion- 
able and decent for all those who attended public worship to take 
a part in the singing, it became common in his neighbourhood for 
the young people to spend a part of the long winter evenings in 



20 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND MRiriNGS, 

learning what was called sacred music. A person, less or more 
skilled in this art, set up an evemng school in some of the most 
populous villages ; and the young people attended him for two or 
three hours, so many nights in the week. The music-master, 
whose lessons Adam Clarke attended, desirous of standing on 
equal ground with his competitors, and to secure a competent 
number of scholars, proposed that he would divide the usual hours 
into two parts, viz. to teach singing in the former, and dancing in 
the latter. This new plan brought him several additional pupils, 
and his school prospered to his heart's content. At first Adam 
despised the dancing part of the " establishment," and for a con- 
siderable time took no part in it, deeming it a mad freak. At 
lengtli, through persuasion and entreaty, his stedfastness was over- 
come ; by long-looking it began to appear harmless ; by and bye, 
it rather put on a graceful appearance ; and, lastly, it was viewed 
as an elegant accomplishment ! Ultimately he was prevailed on to 
cast in his lot with the dancing tribe ; and, as it w^as always a 
maxim witli him to do whatever he did with all his might, he gave 
himself up to it, and soon became superior to most of his school- 
fellows. Hitherto he had gone to the school for the sake of 
singing, now he went most for the sake of dancing. Leaving his 
understanding uninfluenced, it took fast hold of his passions. If, 
at any time, prevented from going, he felt uneasy — sometimes 
vexed — and often, what is called cross — his temper, in such cases, 
being rarely under his controul. 

All this is perfectly natural, and no more than what has 
happened to thousands of other thoughtless youths. But what 
w^ere Adam Clarke's sober reflections on it in after life ? the know- 
ledge of tliis may be of important use to posterity ; and, indeed, 
without this it were of little use to record the follies of youth. He 
has himself thus recorded his judgment, which shall be given in 
his own words : — 

" When about twelve or thirteen years of age, I learned to 
dance. I long resisted all solicitations to this employment, but at 
last I suffered myself to be overcome, and learned and profited 
beyond most of my fellows. I grew passionately fond of it — 
would scarcely walk but in measured time — and was constantly 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 21 

tripping, moving, and shuffling, in all times and places. I began 
now to value myself, which, as far as I can recollect, I had never 
thought of before. I grew impatient of controul, was fond of 
company, wished to mingle more than I had ever done, with 
young people. I imbibed a passion for better cloathes, and was 
discontented when I found a neighbour's son better dressed than 
myself. I lost the spirit of subordination ; did not love work ; 
was seized with a spirit of idleness ; and, in short, drank in all 
the brain-sickening effluvia of pleasure. Company and dancing 
took the place of reading and study; and the authority of my 
parents was feared, indeed, but not respected. Few serious 
impressions could prevail in a mind now imbued with frivolity and 
the love of pleasure. Yet I entered into no disreputable assembly, 
and in no one case, ever kept any improper company. I formed 
no illegal connection, nor associated with any whose characters 
were either tarnished or suspicious. Nevertheless, dancing was to 
me a perverting influence — an urunixed moral evil. For though, by 
the mercy of God, it did not lead me to the depravity of manners, 
it greatly weakened the moral principles, drowned the voice of a 
well-instructed conscience, and was the first cause of impelling me 
to seek my happiness in this life. Every thing yielded to the 
disposition it had produced, and every thing was absorbed by it. 
I have it justly m abhorrence for the moral injury it did me ; and 
I can testify (as far as my own observations have extended, and 
they have had a pretty wide range,) I have known it to produce 
the same evil in others that it produced in me. I consider it, 
therefore, as a branch of that worldly education, which leads from 
heaven to earth, from things spiritual to things sensual, and from 
God to Satan. Let them plead for it who will, I know it to be 
evil, and that only. They who bring up their children in this 
way, and send them to those schools where dancing is taught, are 
consecrating them to the service of Moloch, and cultivating the 
passions, so as to cause them to bring forth the weeds of a fallen 
nature, with an additional rankness, deep rooted inveteracy, and 
inexhaustible fertility. Nemo sohrius saltat, ' no man in his 
senses will dance/ said Cicero, a heathen. Shame then, on those 



22 MEMOIRS OP THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

Christians who advocate a cause by which many sons become 
profligate, and many daughters have been ruined." 

Such were Dr. Clarke's reflections on dancing — the result of 
experience — and such his opinion of the practice. Against this 
branch of fashionable education, he, on all proper occasions, lifted 
up his voice. Many years after he had himself desisted from the 
practice, he drew up his thoughts on the subject, in a paper which 
was inserted in the Methodist Magazine, vol. xv. in consequence of 
an attempt made to introduce it into the Methodist boarding 
schools. Under the influence of this depraving vice, the subject of 
this memoir did not long continue : in less than two years it began 
and terminated with him. 

It was now high time to think of casting his lot for life. His 
father had intended him for the ministry in the established church, 
with a view to which his education had been conducted ; and he 
himself wished it without knowing what he desired. The circum- 
stances of the family, however, consisting as it did of seven 
children, viz. two sons and five daughters, was a formidable object 
in the way, and rendered it impracticable to maintain him at one 
of the universities : the scheme consequently was dropt. His 
parents next proposed to place him with a surgeon and apothecary 
of their acquaintance ; but this project also miscarried when just 
on the eve of completion : and, as his brother had about this time 
finished his apprenticeship and gone to sea, the family began to 
think that it would be best for them to retain him at home, being, 
as it were, their only son, that he might assist his father in the 
school, and succeed him when it should please God to render him 
unfit for the employment. This was no lure to the mind of the 
son, who plainly enough saw that his father had a most irksome 
life, with great labour and anxiety for a very inadequate re- 
muneration. Add to which that it was not a line of life for which 
he had entertained any predilection. How Providence appointed 
his lot will appear in the sequel. Before we proceed, however, it 
may be proper to introduce, in this place, two remarkable occur- 
rences, or, as they are commonly termed, accidents, which had 
nearly proved fatal to the subject of this memoir. 



OF THE KEV. ADAM CLARKE. LL. D., F. A. S. 



23 



On one occasion he was sent by his father to bring liome a sack 
of grain from a neighbouring village. It was thrown over the 
bare back of the horse, and to keep it steady, Adam was placed on 
the top. One end happening to be much heavier than the other, 
he found considerable difficulty in balancing the grain and keep- 
ing it on the horse's back. Presently, down it came, and poor 
Adam under it ! His back happened to come in contact with a 
pointed stone : he was taken up apparently dead — a person 
attempted to bleed him, but in vain, the blood would not flow, and 
his face, neck, &c. turned quite black. He lay in a state of 
insensibility for upwards of two hours, during the greater part of 
which time, he could not be perceived to breathe, and those around 
him whispered " he is dead." He was brought near the fire and 
rubbed with warm clothes : at length a copious flow of blood from 
the orifice in the arm was the means of promoting that respiration 
which had been so long obstructed. All had given him over for 
dead ; and even now that he began to breathe, but with an oppres- 
sive sense of the acutest pain, few entertained hopes that he could 
long survive this accident. In about four-and-twenty hours, it 
was thought that he might be conveyed home in an easy chair, a 
distance of about a mile. He, however, peremptorily refused to be 
put into the chair ; but while the men carried it, he held it with his 
right hand, and walked by its side, in which way he reached his 
father's house, and in a short time, to the great surprise of all who 
witnessed the circumstance, was completely restored. 

The second accident had like to have proved completely fatal, 
because it happened where he could have no succour. At this 
time his father had removed to the vicinity of Coleraine, in the 
parish of Agherton, very near that beautiful strand, where the 
river Ban empties itself into the Deucaledonian Sea. One morn- 
ing, as was sometimes his custom, he rode a mare of his father's 
into the sea to bathe her. The sea was comparatively calm — the 
morning very fine— -and he thought he might ride beyond the 
breakers, as the shore, in that place, was remarkably smooth and 
flat. The mare went with great reluctance and plunged several 
times. Young Clarke urged her forwards, until he at length got 
beyond the breakers into the swells. A terrible swell coming on. 



24 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY. AND WRITINGS, 

from which it was too late to retreat, overwhelmed both the horse 
and its rider. There was no person in sight, nor any help at 
hand. The description which he afterwards gave will be best 
known from his own words, which I take leave to quote : 

" In company one day with the late Dr. Letsom, of London, the 
conversation turning on the resuscitation of persons apparently 
dead from drowning. Dr. L. said, ' Of all that I have seen restored, 
or questioned afterwards, I never 'found one who had the smallest 
recollection of any thing that passed, from the moment they went 
under water till the time in which they were restored to life and 
thought.' Dr. Clarke answered, ' Dr. Letsom, I knew a case to 
the contrary.' ' Did you, indeed ?' * Yes, Dr. Letsom, and the 
case was my own : I was once drowned :' and then I related the 
circumstances, and added, I saw my danger, but thought the 
mare would swim, and I knew I could ride. AVhen we were both 
overwhelmed, it appeared to me that I had gone to the bottom 
with my eyes open. At first I thought I saw the bottom clearly, 
and then felt neither apprehension nor pain : on the contrary, I felt 
as if I had been in the most delightful situation, my mind was 
tranquil and uncommonly happy ; I felt as if in Paradise, and yet 
I do not recollect that I saw any person. The impressions of 
happiness seemed not to be derived from any thing around me, but 
from the state of my mind ; and yet I had a general apprehension 
of pleasing objects ; and I cannot recollect that any thing appeared 
defined, nor did my eye take in any object, only I had a 
general impression of a green colour, such as of fields or gardens ; 
but my happiness did not arise from these, but appeared to consist 
merely in the tranquil, indescribably tranquil state of my mind. By 
and bye I seemed to awake as out of slumber, and felt unutterable 
pain and difficulty of breathing; and now I found I had been 
carried by a strong wave, and left in very shallow water upon the 
shore ; and the pain I felt was occasioned by the air once more 
inflating my lungs and producing respii'ation. How long I had 
been under the water I cannot tell : it may, however, be guessed at 
by this circumstance : — when restored to the power of reflection, I 
looked for the mare, and saw her walking leisurely down shore 
towards home, then about half a mile distant from the place where 



OF TttE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. S5 

We were submerged. Now, I aver, 1. That in being drowned I 
felt no pain. 2. That I did not for a single moment lose my 
consciousness. 3. I felt indescribably happy; and though dead, 
as to the total suspension of all the functions of life, yet I felt no 
pain in dying; and I take for granted, from thi^ circumstance, that 
those who die by drowning, feel no pain, and that probably it is 
the easiest of all deaths. 4. That I felt no pain till once more 
exposed to the action of the atmospheric air, and then I felt great 
pain and anguish in returning to life ; which anguish, had I con- 
tinued under water, I should never have felt. 5. That animation 
must have been totally suspended from the time I must have been 
under water ; which time might be in some measure ascertained by 
the distance the mare was from the place of my submersion, which 
was at least half a mile, and she was not, when I first observed 
her, making any speed. 6. Whether there were any thing preter- 
natural in my escape, I cannot tell ; or whether a ground swell had 
not in a merely natural way borne me to the shore, and the retro- 
cession of the tide, (for it was then ebbing,) left me exposed to the 
open air, I cannot tell. My preservation might have been the 
effect of natural causes, and yet it appears to be more rational to 
attribute it to a superior agency. Here, then. Dr. Letsom, is a 
case widely different, it appears, from those you have witnessed ; 
and which argues very little for the modish doctrine of the mate- 
riality of the soulJ' Dr. Letsom appeared puzzled with this 
relation, but did not attempt to make any remark on it. Perhaps 
the subject itself may not be unworthy of the consideration of 
some of our minute philosophers. 

Every reader will doubtless feel an interest in this account of 
Dr. Clarke's narrow escape from a watery grave ; and the relation 
of his feelings, impressions, and sensations, would seem to afford a 
pretty satisfactory confutation of the position of the physician. 
The reader will pardon me, I trust, if I avail myself of this oppor- 
tunity to place beside Dr. Clarke's singular case, the relation of 
another which happened more recently, a case not a whit less 
remarkable and interesting than his, and which will be found to 
corroborate the truth of the facts contended for, in opposition to 
Dr. Letsom's theory. I beg to apologize for a little prolixity in 

E 



26 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

the narrative, which I feel unavoidable in order to render the 
whole affair quite intelligible. 

It was, I think, in the month of January, 1825, that I was 
returning home from Liverpool in one of the coaches. Passing- 
through Warrington we took up a female inside passenger on her 
way to London, who appeared in not the most perfect state of 
health. She seemed about forty years of age, and of more than 
ordinary respectability to be travelling in a stage coach. The 
first hundred miles of our journey was passed mostly in the dark, 
and being entire strangers we had little conversation. Having 
breakfasted together at Northampton on the following morning, 
much refreshed, we resumed our seats in the coach, and taciturnity 
gave place to a free and familiar conversation. Unhappy 
Fauntleroy was, I remember, at that time lying under sentence of 
death, and to the best of my recollection we had entered upon the 
day when he was to be executed. It is needless to say that this 
was an event which greatly agitated the public mind, and en- 
grossed general conversation. Having descanted upon it at 
considerable length, until it had become almost exhausted, it gave 
place to a disquisition on the various kinds of death, and the 
preference to be made, had mortals an option in the matter, and 
this introduced what I am about to relate. 

Addressing herself to me, the lady asked whether I remembered to 
have noticed in the public prints, the mention of a sad disaster which 
had happened during the preceding summer, off the Isle of Wight, 
when a pleasure boat had been run dov/n by the Fox cutter, and 
the party had an almost miraculous escape from death. I replied 
that I had a perfect recollection of it, for that it had arrested my 
attention in an extraordinary degree, and to prove it to her, I went 
over the narrative circumstantially, mentioning that the party con- 
sisted of a gentleman from London, his lady, and their son, a youth 
of about 14 years of age ; the master of the boat and his son, a 
young man of 18 or 20, and that the only one that lost his life was 
the owner of the boat. Yes, .said she, you are quite correct as to 
all the circumstances — and now let me tell you, that I am that lady ! 
I need not say with what astonishment I gazed upon her at hear- 
ing this — I was for the moment speechless ! My eyes were instantly 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 27 

suftused with tears, and it was not until my excited feelings had 
found relief in the only way nature has provided, that I was able to 
speak. Seeing me so much alFected by having the appalling scene 
revived in my recollection, she naturally concluded that it would 
be gratifying to me to receive from her own lips a recital of the 
deeply affecting tragedy, and with great politeness and affability 
she took up the subject from the beginning, the substance of which 
I shall here faithfully record, without embellishment, or designed 
misrepresentation. 

" My residence, when at home, is in Gower Street, Fitzroy 
Square [I think she said No. 49] my husband, a merchant. After 
being married a few years my health gradually declined, and my 
nervous system became so deplorably disordered that the bare 
opening of a door or the treading of a foot on the carpet operated 
as daggers on my feelings. We had for years availed ourselves of 
the best medical aid which the profession afforded, but without 
finding the smallest relief; on the contrary I gradually grew worse 
and was tottering on the brink of the grave. While in this hope- 
less condition, a friend of my husband's, a gentleman who resided 
in Westminster, happened to call upon us at Gower Street, and 
finding me in the pitiable plight I was, entreated as a favour 
that he might be permitted to send his family physician [Dr. 
Morris, I think] to visit me, being confident that he could admi- 
nister to my relief We consented as matter of course ; and follow- 
ing his prescriptions, I very soon began to experience an improve- 
ment in my health. In about three months, he told me, he had now 
done all for me which medicine could do, and that the rest remained 
with myself If I was desirous of perfecting my recovery, I must 
go down to the sea side, and remain there for some time, following 
certain rules and directions which he would give me, and, in parti- 
cular, I must, as far as possible, live upon the water ! Preparations 
were accordingly made for this, and Mr. B., myself, and our son, an 
only child, proceeded to the Isle of Wight, where, at Cowes, we en- 
gaged suitable apartments, and hired a pleasure boat to be constantly 
at our service for the season. Our usual plan was to take provisions 
ready cooked with us in a basket, and dine upon the water while the 
boat was under sail and we were enjoying the advantages of sea air. 



28 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

" Tlie Fox cutter was at that time, stationed off Cowes, by the 
Admiralty, on the preventive service : and it was not unusual with 
the commander to weigh anchor at times and enjoy the pleasures of 
a sail. We had always to pass her going and returning, but never 
found any inconvenience attending it. Having pursued this plan 
for several weeks, and greatly to the benefit of my health, we were 
returning home to Cowes, one fine evening, when the cutter was 
sailing backwards and forwards, between us and the shore. I had 
an unusual dread of some accident that evening upon my spirits, 
and had more than once warned the master of the boat to be care- 
ful, and especially as we approached the cutter, I repeated my appre- 
hensions, entreating him not to attempt to pass a-head of her, but by 
all means drop a-stern. But the more I entreated, the more perverse 
and obstinate did he seem, and it cost him his life. To give a 
display of his prowess, he ran the boat a-head, and a light breeze 
springing up which filled the cutter's sails, she came down upon us, 
sunk us in an instant, and passed completely over us ! The whole 
party were plunged into the sea. Mr. B. the moment he saw his 
danger, made a spring at the mast of the boat and clung around it, 
by which he saved his life. As to myself, I went plump down to the 
bottom of the sea, and was for some time completely under water. 
I had time enough for reflection, and I well remember what my 
reflections were. Convinced that my end was come, my first 
thoughts were ' was I in a fit state to die ? ' This was no pleasant 
subject to me .... I had often heard it said, that drowning was 
the most desirable of all deaths, and I had full proof of the fact, 
for never shall I forget the harmonious sounds which seemed to fill 
my ears, and the ecstatic feelings of which I was the subject ; my 
sensations and impressions were indescribably delightful. I had 
time also to recollect having been told by some one, that if I fell 
into the water there were two things of the last importance to attend 
to ; one was, if possible to keep my head above water, and the 
other to keep playing with my hands as I had seen a little dog do 
with his fore-feet, when thrown into a pool. I began playing with 
my hands, my silk dress became buoyant ; I rose rapidly to the 
surface ; and there, by persevering in the same course, throwing 
back my head, and paddling with my hands, I supported myself 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



29 



from sinking, until the boats had time to put off from the shore and 
I was picked up ; the space of time that I was kept in this state 
could not be less than fifteen minutes. No attempt was made to 
rescue us by the crew of the cutter, who declared that they were 
totally ignorant of our being near them, and I believe such to have 
been the case." 

► This is a brief narrative of the incidents attending that melan- 

choly catastrophe, and the whole goes to justify the points insisted 
on by Dr. Clarke, that persons in a drowning state may have a full 
consciousness of their situation ; that, in a state of submersion, the 
subject may feel indescribably happy, and though dying, be wholly 
exempt from pain. My informant went into a variety of other 
particulars, which it is needless to put down in this place ; but 
there is one fact so illustrative of human depravity that I hope to 
be pardoned for here mentioning it. When this amiable lady met 
with this disastrous accident, she had attached to her person, an 
elegant gold watch, which, with its keys, seals, chain, &c. cost her 
seventy guineas ! It was so affixed to her dress that it could not 
fall off, nor be removed but with difficulty. She was brought on 
shore in a state of the most entire stupor and insensibility ; a num- 
ber of females, strangers, got around her, all eager to assist in 
conveying her to her residence, where she was stript and put to 
bed. It was not until after the lapse of two or three days that she 
was able to exercise reflection, and the case of her husband required 
a considerably longer time, for his life hung in jeopardy for weeks. 
But when she could reflect, it occurred to her to inquire for her 
watch ! No one had seen it ; search was made in every direction 
but without efl^ect. Hand bills were printed, and at length a re- 
ward of twenty pounds oflfered to any one that would bring it to 
the lady : but all to no purpose —the watch was never recovered. 
The conclusion which the unfortunate family came to was, that, 
when the lady was brought to shore, she got surrounded by some 
loose women of the place, who, destitute of all the feelings of hu- 
manity, stole the watch, and could not be tempted, even by the 
reward proffered, to restore it to its rightful owner. 



30 iMEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

SECTION II. 

Dr. Clarke's first acquaintance with the Methodists. 

Of all the periods of human life, that is the most critical when we 
first set out in the world. It not unfrequently happens that the first 
step is decisive. The young adventurer, set free from the authority 
of parents and guardians, becomes his own master, and follows his 
own inclination. It is then that he begins to form his character ; 
and the character that is then formed generally lasts through life. 
Mankind for the most part continue in the same path in which 
they set out. The passions of youth may resign to the passions of 
age, and one set of vices or virtues give place to another ; but 
seldom does the formed character undergo an essential change. 
Tliis is evidently the doctrine taught us by the wise King of Israel, 
when he said, train up a child in the way he should go, and when 
he is old, he will not dejiart from it." Our first steps, therefore, 
ought to be ordered with the utmost care and circumspection, since 
upon them, in a great measure, depends not only our present, but 
also our eternal happiness. The application of these remarks to 
the subject before us will presently appear. 

In the former section we have seen a little of the care which the 
mother of Adam Clarke took of the religious education of her 
children, and her anxiety to imbue his youthful mind with proper 
principles — the fear of God, and reverence of his word. Thus the 
seed was sown, the vegetation of which it will be our business to 
trace. The parish clergyman under whose ministry he mostly had 
sat, was the Rev. W. Smith, of Milburn, near Coleraine, a bene- 
volent and humane man, but not very clear in his views and state- 
ments of the Gospel of Christ. He was partial to Adam, because 
he was almost the only person who assisted the clerk in the church 
service, and especially in conducting the psalmody. Occasionally, 
however, he went with his mother to the Presbyterian meeting 
house, " where the trumpet gave a very uncertain sound, as both 
pastor and people were verging closely on Socinianism." The 
w^hole parish was divided between these two sects, the church and 
the presbyterians, and a general forgetfulness of God prevailed. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LI,. D., F. A. S. 



31 



There was scarcely a person in it of decided piety, though few 
were grossly profane or profligate. " Even Mrs. Clarke," says 
her son, " through the want of the means of grace, and the preach- 
ing of the doctrine which is according to godliness, had deteriorated 
in her spirituality of mind, and began to be remiss in her domestic 
practice of piety. The place needed reformation, but faithful 
reprovers were wanting." 

About the year 1777, the Methodist preachers, who had been 
for some time established in Coleraine visited the parish of Agher- 
ton, in which the Clarke family resided. Of this people, young- 
Clarke was totally ignorant until now, except that he had seen a 
paragraph in a newspaper, in which it was remarked as a singular 
thing, and worthy of notice, that " a Methodist preacher, minister- 
ing in the open air to a large congregation, a heavy shower of rain 
falling, the people began to disperse and seek shelter in their 
houses, which the preacher observing^ told them that ' rain was 
one of the chief blessings of God's providence ; that, without it 
there could be neither seed time, nor harvest, nor indeed any- 
green thing on the face of the earth : and will you', said he, ' fly 
from the gift of God ? ' The people felt the reproof, drew together 
more closely, and though the rain continued to descend, heard 
patiently and piously to the end of the discourse." 

The first preacher of the Methodist connection whom young 
Clarke was privileged to hear was John Brettel, many years a 
respectable itinerant preacher among the Wesleyans, and sprung 
from a respectable family in Birmingham. One of Adam's school- 
fellows had enticed him to accompany him to Buiiiside, where, 
said he, " there is a Methodist preacher to be this evening, and we 
shall have nice fun." Although young Clarke was sufficiently- 
playful, and ready to embrace any opportunity that oflered amuse- 
ment and diversion, yet he was perplexed to understand " how 
preaching and playing could be associated : or how time set apart 
for devotion could be proper for amusement ; for he had ever been 
taught to hold preaching in reverence, whether he heard it in the 
church or in a presbyterian meeting." He, nevertheless, promised 
his companion that he would go, and went accordingly. They 
found the people assembled in a barn ; and presently the preacher 



32 MEMOIRS OF THE LITE, MINISTRY. AND "iVRITINGS 



entered ; a plain, serious looking man, bur very diderently dressed 
from what was expected. Adam gazed on him with sui'prise, but 
anticipated his tirst sentence, which ran thus : I see several lads 
there — I hope they will be quiet and behave well ; if not, they 
shall be turned our ! " As Adam expected no diversion, he was 
not disappointed by this declaration. He did not bring: away tlie 
text, and the sermon made no particular impression on his mind ; 
but he recollected the following assertion, " The Westminster 
Divines have asserted in their Catechism, that • no mere man 
since the fall, can keep God s commandments ; but doth daily break 
them in thought, word, and deed," But, " said the preacher, the 
scriptm-es promise us ' Salvation fi'om all our sin' ; and I must 
credit ihem in preference to the Westminster Di-vines.'" Young 
Clarke had been taught this catechism, by his mother^ as already 
mentioned, and had given implicit credence to this assertion ; but 
the remark struck him and he reasoned thus with himself : " If the 
scriptures say the contran.*, certainly I should believe the scriptures 
in preference to the catechism." 

The inference which young Clai'ke di'ew was unquestionably 
just. " Let God be true ; but every man a liar," that contradicts 
his word. Before he gave up the Assembly's Catechism, however, 
on rliis poinr, it would not have been amiss, had he called to recol- 
lection such texts of scripture as the following : " In many things 
we offend all" — " There is not a just man upon the earth that 
liveth and sinneth not." " If we say we have no sin, we deceive 
ourselves, and the ti'uth is not in us ; if we say we have not sinned, 
we make God a liar, and liis word is not in us." It is no doubt 
true that " the scripture promises salvation from sin" — that is, it 
promises the believer deliverance from the guilt, the power, and 
the dominion of sin, hei^e ; and from all its penal consequences and 
dreadful effects, in the xcorld to come. The assembly of divines, 
in compiling the catechism, never thought of calling this doctrine 
In question. The methodist preacher was too hast^" in impeaching 
their orthodoxy, and young Clarke in joining him — and he lived to 
learn better. ''''Scripture is the best interpreter of scripture," 
There is a perfect harmony in all its parts, and we should beware 
of taking up any principle or doctrine which would set one part of 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL.D., F.A. S. 33 

the word of God in opposition to another, for that is, to darken 
counsel, and undermine the authority of the whole of divine 
revelation. 

On his return to his father's house, Adam Clarke reflected much 
on what he had seen and heard. He had followed the preacher 
into the man's house whose barn he had occupied, and heard him 
talk much on the necessity of repentance, faith, holiness, &c. ex- 
horting the people to turn to God with all their hearts, and that 
without delay. Adam thought if these people talk so continually 
about religion, both in public and private, they must be engaged 
in a very irksome employment ! 

During the following week, the same John Brettel visited 
another part of the neighbourhood, and Adam went to hear him 
preach. His text was Rev. iii. 20, " Behold, I stand at the door 
and knock ; if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will 
come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." In 
discussing the subject, he pointed out the various methods which 
God makes use of in order to awaken and alarm impenitent 
sinners, and touched upon tlie dreadful consequences of slighting, 
resisting, or neglecting these calls, which could be nothing less 
than final and eternal ruin : " but God," said he, always fires the 
warning canon before he discharges the murdering piece !" This 
was the last time young Clarke had an opportunity of hearing Mr. 
Brettel, who does not appear to have been very well skilled in the 
word of righteousness, if one may be allowed to judge from the 
use he made of the text just mentioned. The words were 
addressed to a Christian Church, and not to impenitent, ungodly 
sinners : the church of Laodicea was in a backsliding state ; a spirit 
of lukewarainess and indifference had seized the members, and this 
was a call to them to awake out of sleep, renew their zeal and 
love, and Christ would restore comforts unto their souls ! 

Shortly after this a Mr. Thomas Barber, " a truly apostolic 
man," visited the place of young Clarke's residence, and as he tells 
us, " with indefatigable diligence and zeal, went through all the 
country, preaching Christ crucified, and redemption through his 
blood, in dwelling-houses, barns, schools, the open air. Sec. &c. and 
many were awakened under his ministry." Adam prevailed upon 

F 



34 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

his mother to go and hear him : she did so, and immediately pro- 
nounced, this is the doctrine of the Reformers ; this is true and 
unadulterated Christianity." Mrs. Clarke was so much pleased 
with this new preacher, that she entreated her husband and the 
rest of the family to go and hear for themselves. Mr. Clarke 
heard him, and pronounced it to be " the genuine doctrine of the 
established church." The preacher was invited to their house, 
and from that time, both he and all his successors continued tO 
have it as their home, and there they were entertained in the best 
way the family could afford. 

Under Mr. Barber's ministry. Dr. Clarke tells us he profited 
greatly; his mind, he says, was gi-adually enlightened and 
improved ; the doctrine of the kingdom " dropped on him as the 
rain, his speech distilled on him as the dew — as the small rain 
upon the tender herb, and as showers upon the grass." He 
followed this preacher everywhere within his reach ; forsook all 
childish diversions; became sedate and sober; prayed in private 
and read the Scriptures ; till at last his parents began to think he 
was likely to be " righteous overmuch." He, however, persevered, 
and attended closely to his work in the farm ; sometimes from four 
in the morning till between six and seven o'clock at night : and 
then felt quite happy to be allowed to run three or four miles into 
the country to hear a sermon ! By these means he was generally 
enabled to hear four sermons a week when the preacher was in 
that part of the country ; taking special care that no one should 
have to reproach him with having left one half hour's work 
undone, or omitted to perform any part in its proper season. 

" Far from making him slothful, the desire he had to promote 
his salvation tended to stimulate still more his activity in all the 
secular pursuits of life. Formerly he would while away time, and 
often play when he should have been at work ; now, he did every 
thing from conscience; he served his father as he would have 
served the meanest stranger, in whose employment he should 
spend every hour of the day. In fact, to labour with his hands 
was now his delight. He felt the full force of those words : " not 
slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." He could 
say from experience, that labour was pleasant; and, as he saw 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 35 

Others, who were under the same religious concern, doubly active 
in their secular callings, while earnestly seeking the salvation of 
their souls, he was convinced that the report, which many raided, 
that religion made men idle, was a most unfounded calumny. He 
even bore testimony, that he had found in all his religious experi- 
ence, and in the acquaintance he had with the work of God in 
others, that men became economists of time, and diligent in their 
avocations, in proportion as they were earnest for the salvation of 
their souls." 

Young Clarke now began to delight much in the exercise of 
prayer. He could no longer be satisfied with morning and 
evening devotion. His spiritual guide, Mr. Barber, awakened him 
from this dream, by proposing to him the following questions. 
" Adam, do you think that God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven 
you your sins ?" The reply was, " No, sir, I have no evidence of 
this." " Adam, how often do you pray ?" Answer, " Every 
morning and evening." " Adam, did you ever hear of any person 
finding peace with God who only prayed in private twice in the 
day ?" He felt ashamed and confounded : and at once perceived 
that he was not sufficiently in earnest, nor sufficiently awakened to 
a due sense of his state. Though he could say, that often during 
the day, he was accustomed to lift up his heart to God ; yet he 
was not then aware that this requires much less light and heat 
than are requisite in solemn pleading with God. He now, there- 
fore, began to quicken his pace ; for, he heard in almost every 
sermon, that it was the privilege of all the people of God to know, 
by the testimony of the Holy Spirit in their consciences, that their 
sins were forgiven them for Christ's sake ; and that, when they 
became adopted into the family of heaven, and were made children 
of God, " God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into their hearts, 
crying, Abba, Father." This he earnestly sought, but was 
damped in his ardour after this blessing by the sayings of many, 
of whose judgment he had a favourable opinion, that to know their 
sins were forgiven them, was the privilege of only a few, and those 
the most favoured of God's people. On this point, they made the 
following distinctions : " There is a two-fold species of saving 
faith ; the one of assurance, and the other of adherence. The 



36 MExMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AM) WRITINGS, 

former the privilege of very few ; the latter, the privilege of all 
true Christians. The former most comfortable, but the latter 
equally safe. Trusting in an unseen Christ, will deceive no man ; 
but if he may have the comforts of the Spirit, so much the 
■better." c'-i .1. 

It is totally foreign to the object of this memoir to discuss 
doctrinal points, or controvert the creed of the followers of Mr. 
Wesley ; but the writer cannot help remarking, en passant, that the 
advice and directions which Mr. Barber gave to young Clarke, 
were scarcely consistent with what an apostle would have given 
under the circumstances. The latter would not have asked him, 
did he know that his sins were forgiven him ? He would not have 
enquired, how many times a day he was exercised in the duty of 
prayer ? Nor have hinged his peace with God on a more frequent 
exercise of that duty. He would rather have asked. Dost thou 
believe on the Son of God ? What are thy views of his person, 
character, offices, grace, and salvation ? what of his death, resur- 
rection, exaltation, &c. ? and, if he found these to be according to 
Scripture, what effect has the belief of these doctrines upon thee ? 
does it bring peace to thy guilty conscience, without taking into 
account any considerations about thyself — any token for good 
arising from any thing wrought in thee or done by thee— but 
simply, as an ungodly sinner, dost thou see a sufficiency in his 
work of atonement and sacrifice, to risk all the concerns of thy 
precious and immortal soul upon him ? If this be the case, if 
thou art persuaded that God is well pleased in his beloved Son, 
for bis righteousness' sake, and that he hath proved this by raising 
liis Son from the dead ; in the very nature of things, that persuasion 
must produce peace of conscience, and give hope towards God. It 
is demonstrable that the first Christians were filled with joy, the 
instant they understood and believed these things, and the Gospel 
is the same now that it was then. As to the knowledge that his 
sins were forgiven him for Christ's sake, the attainment of that 
privilege falls under a different consideration. The whole New 
Testament shows, that it is only to be attained in the way of 
" faith working by love," and leading the believer to keep Christ's 
commandments, John xiv. 21. The parable of the sower. Matt. xiii. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F A. S. 37 

teaches us, that men may hear the Gospel of salvation, receive it 
with great joy, be very happy in it for a time, perhaps quite confi- 
dent that " their sins are forgiven them," and after all fall away 
from their profession, and die in their sins. The distinction above- 
mentioned of two kinds of saving faith, viz. that of assurance and 
that of adheience is nowhere supported by Scripture, it was 
hatched in the schools, and is calculated to confuse and perplex 
rather than instruct and edify. But to proceed : Mr. Clarke tells 
us, that " he now determined to search the Scriptui-es to see whether 
these things were so ; and as he never yet had read the New 
Testament regularly through, he began that necessary duty : and 
with deep attention and earnest prayer, read over the whole from 
beginning to end, devoting to this employment almost every 
leisure moment. The result was an increase of light and great 
satisfaction to his own mind. It was indeed to him a new book ; 
he read, and felt, and wept, and prayed ; was often depressed ; then 
encouraged ; his eyes were opened, and he beheld wonders out of 
this Divine law. By this reading he acquired and fixed his creed 
in all its articles, not one of which he ever found reason to change, 
though he had not, as yet, that full confidence of each, which he 
afterwards acquired. At this time, he had read none of the 
writings of the Methodists ; and from them he never learned that 
creed, which, on after examination, he found to be precisely the 
same as theirs. He could say, ' I have not received my creed 
from man, nor by man.' He learned it without consulting bodies 
of divinity, human creeds, confessions of faith, or such like, but 
from the fountain head of truth, the Oracles of the living God." 
AH this may be perfectly true, and if true very commendable ; but 
it by no means follows from the premises, that Adam Clarke's 
creed was in every particular in strict accordance with truth. Let 
the reader keep his eye steadily fixed on the sequel. 

Adam Clarke having tasted that the Lord is gracious, now be- 
gan to feel increasing anxiety not only for his own salvation, but 
for that of his family, school-fellows, and neighbours. He rejoiced 
to see multitudes flock to the ministry of the word, and a society 
formed in an adjoining village, though he himself never thought 
of becoming a member of that or any other. His mother had gone 



38 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

to see how what was called class-meeting was conducted, and on 
her return spoke highly of the meeting. She desired her son Adam 
to accompany her the next Lord's day to the said meeting. He 
complied with her request, but it was with some reluctance. After 
singing and prayer, the leader spoke to each person severally con- 
cerning his spiritual state. Adam listened with deep attention, and 
was surprised to hear one of his neighbours speak to this effect : 

I was once darkness but now I am light in the Lord : I was 
once a slave to sin, but now I am made free by the grace of Christ : 
I once felt the horrors of a guilty conscience, but now I know and 
feel that God has blotted out my sins." Adam was deeply struck 
with these declarations ; and though he knew that this man had 
been a giddy foolish trifler, a dmmmer to a company of volunteers, 
yet aware that he had lately attended the preaching of the Me- 
thodists, he doubted not the truth of his testimony. Some others 
expressed themselves in the same way, while others deplored their 
hardness of heart and darkness of mind. He now began to feel 
very uneasy, and to think, " this is no place for me, I have no 
right to be here ; these people should have none to witness their 
religious meetings, but such as belong to some society :" and in 
fact, he felt grieved that his mother should have been so inconside- 
rate as to bring him there. He was afraid lest the leader should 
question him, for he knew he had nothing to say that would be 
creditable to himself or profitable to others. Eventually he was 
questioned, and got off with a sort of general answer. 

At length the meeting broke up, and he was returning home 
melancholy and unhappy, when the leader, Mr. Andi'ew Hunter, 
of Coleraine joined him, and began to speak to him on spiritual 
matters, in a most affectionate and pathetic way. He earnestly 
pressed him to give his whole heart to God, for, said he, " you 
may be a burning and shining light, in a benighted land." 

Andrew Hunter's advice to the young man, to " give his whole 
heart to God ;" in other words, to " seek the Lord while he may be 
found, and call upon him while he is near," was unquestionably 
very good, because it is precisely that advice which the Spirit of 
inspiration gives to all the children of men. Isa. Iv. 6 — 8, but to 
stimulate him to this from the consideration that he might become 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D,, F. A. S. 39 

a burning- and shining light in a dark and benighted land," was, 
to say the least of it very incautious and indiscreet. It discovered 
great ignorance of the natural pride and deceitfulness of the human 
heart ; it was much more calculated to inflame his self-love and mi- 
nister food to his vanity and folly than promote humility and lowli- 
ness of mind, the virtues that above all others most adorn the Chris- 
tian character, and more especially in youth. Let us see what effect 
it now had upon young Clarke, according to his own account of 
the matter. Thus he writes. 

" Why these words should have deeply affected him, he could 
not tell, but so it was. He was cut to the heart. Instead of being 
rich and increased in spiritual goods, as he once fondly thought, he 
now saw that he was wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, 
and naked. All his past diligence, prayer, reading, &c. appeared 
as nothing ; in vain he looked within and without for something to 
recommend him to God : but there was nothing. Multitudes of 
evils which before were undiscovered, were now pointed out to his 
conscience as by a sun-beam. He was filled with confusion and 
distress ; wherever he looked he saw nothing but himself. The 
light which penetrated his mind, led him into all the chambers of 
the house of imagery ; and every where he saw idols set up in op- 
position to the worship of the true God. He wished to flee from 
himself, and looked with envy on stocks and stones, for they had 
not offended a just God, and were incapable of bearing his dis- 
pleasure." 

There is nothing more difficult than to trace the springs of 
action in the human mind : but philosophers assure us that 
for every effect there must be a cause. What the effects produced 
on the mind of young Clarke, in the present instance, were, he has 
himself sufficiently explained. It remains for the reader to trace 
the connection, if he is able to do it, between these two things ; 
in other words, to account for the very extraordinary impressions 
produced upon him, by the class-leader's observations. 

He goes on to tell us that " the season was fine, the fields were 
beautifully clothed with green, the herds browsed contentedly in 
their pastures, and the birds were singing melodiously, some in the 
air, some in the trees and bushes ;" but alas, his eyes and his ears 



40 



MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



were now no longer inlets to pleasure. In point of gratification 
nature was to him a universal blank, for he felt himself destitute 
of the image and approbation of his Maker ; and besides this con- 
sciousness, there needed no other hell to constitute his misery. His 
doleful language was, " 0 that I knew where I might find Him, 
that I might come even to his seat ! Behold, I go forward but he 
is not there ; and backward, but I cannot perceive Him : on the 
left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him ; he hideth 
himself on the right hand, that I cannot see Him." Job. xxiii. 3, 8, 9. 

This was beyond all dispute a miserable condition to be in, and 
such as no human being, in his right mind, would plunge himself 
into by choice. " The spirit of a man will bear his infirmities, but 
a wounded spirit who can bear ?" When conscience is once properly 
awakened, and the sinner is led to compare his heai't and life with 
the requirements of that law under which we ai-e all placed ; a law 
which extends not merely to the outward actions, but which also 
takes cognizance of our very words, and even the thoughts of our 
hearts ; which requires us to love God with all the heart and soul, 
and mind, and strength, and our neighbour as ourselves ; which con- 
demns the risings of anger as murder, and the looking after a wo- 
man to lust, as adultery ; — he may well be plunged into distraction ! 
Dr. Clarke says that, at the time referred to, " he was afraid even 
to look towards God, because he felt himself unholy, and yet he 
knew that his help could come from none other than from Him 
whom he had offended, and whose image he did not bear, and con- 
sequently could not have his approbation." 

While one cannot but feelingly sympathise with Adam Clarke 
in the mental anguish of which at this critical juncture he was des- 
tined to be the victim, it will strike the reflecting reader with some 
surprise that such should have been his case, after what he has 
himself told us of the benefit he had derived from Mr. Thomas 
Barber's ministry and his own investigation of the New Testament, 
especially, of the light which burst upon his mind from that book. 
There is some difficulty in reconciling these different statements, 
and it would seem that things had taken with him a retrograde 
movement. But to proceed : 

Mr. Barber, who had always watched over him for good, and 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



41 



had iately formed a class of those who desired to save their souls 
without acquainting him with it, " had entered Adam's name 
among the rest." This was surely very unwarrantable conduct 
on the part of Mr. Barber, nor can we be surprised that when 
young Clarke heard of it he was displeased. It seemed like forcing 
him to be religious whether he would or no ! However, he said to 
himself, " since they have put down my name, I will, by the help 
of God, meet with them," which he accordingly did for several 
weeks. One morning he was detained by illness ; the next time 
he permitted a trifling hinderance to prevent him, and the third 
morning he felt no desire to go. Thus he was absent three weeks. 

This plan of proceeding, which is common among the Methodists, 
must appear very strange to those who take the New Testament 
for their sole guide in religious matters. It is plain from the 
Acts of the Apostles, that those ambassadors of Christ and their 
associates in the work of the ministry had nothing of these class 
meetings, registering of names, and public questionings among 
them, nor do they appear to have felt the want of any thing of the 
kind. Agreeable to the commission which Christ gave them before 
he left the earth to take possession of his throne and kingdom, they 
went forth as heralds of salvation, preaching his gospel in all the 
world and to every creature. It was a very plain and artless tale 
which they had to tell their hearers. They testified who Jesus 
Christ was, and what he had done for the redemption of a lost 
world, declaring it to be "a faithful saying and worthy of all accep- 
tation, that he came into the world to save sinners," at the same time 
shewing that all men were such both by nature and practice. They 
particularly pointed to his death upon the cross as that great event 
by which he made an atonement for sin, putting it away by the 
sacrifice of himself, and bringing in everlasting righteousness for 
the justification of all who believe in him. They held forth his re- 
surrection from the dead on the third day according to the Scrip* 
tures, as the grand proof and demonstration of the perfection and 
sufficiency of his sacrifice, and of the divine good pleasure in it, and 
they brought prominently forward the promise of a faithful God, 
that whosoever believelh this shall be saved. They had nothing more 
to do than to hold forth the testimony of God concerning his Son^ 

G 



42 MEMOIRS or THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

with the promise of salvation to all that believe it, and they left it 
to the Holy Spirit, by his invisible and almighty energy to make 
converts. They knew that Paul might plant and Apollos water, 
but God alone could give the increase. 'Tis he that gives to his 
own word the energy of a fire and a hammer that breaketh the 
rock in pieces. In every instance of real conversion to God, they 
saw the arm of the Lord revealed, and they returned thanks to 
that gracious and merciful Being who caused them to triumph in 
Christ, and made manifest the savour of his knowledge by them in 
every place. " They were unto God a sweet savour of Christ, both 
in them that were saved and in them that perish : to the one they 
were the savour of death unto death, and to the other of life unto 
life." When through the power of the Holy Spirit, enlightening 
the understanding, their word gained an entrance into the hearts of 
sinners, and they were led to cry out, " what must we do to be 
saved," they pointed them invariably to the Lamb of God which 
taketh away the sin of the world. They did not set them upon 
any arduous work or labour in order to save their souls," but 
called theu- attention to v/hat the beloved Son of God has done, 
insisted upon its all sufficiency and completeness; warned them 
against adding any thing to it, as the ground of their acceptance 
with God, for that if they did so Christ should profit them nothing. 
All who professed to believe what the apostles testified and taught*, 
they called upon to be baptized in his name, and thus shew their 
allegiance to the Saviour by being joined to his church, and ob- 
serving his institutions and ordinances. Acts, ii. 37 — 47. This is 
the Lord's way of making disciples and training them up for gloiy ; 
how different is that of the Methodists ! 

It is a very singular account which Dr. Clarke ha& left us of the 
workings of his mind at the period we have been adverting to: I 
shall adduce the whole paragraph as explanatory of it; "It 
plea&ed God," says he " at this time to permit Satan to sift him 
(Adam Clarke) as wheat. It was a strong article in his creed, 
that the passion and death of Christ were held out through the 
whole of the New Testament as sacrificial and expiatory, and that 
his death was a sufficient ransom, sacrifice, and atonement for the 
sin of the w^rld ; for he, by the g^race of God, had tasted death for 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



43 



every man. This doctrine was the only basis of his hope ; and yet 
he had not that faith by which he could lay hold on the merit of 
that sacrifice for his personal salvation. Were this foundation to 
be destroyed, what could he do, or where flee for refuge ?" And 
then he gives us the following account of the manner in which his 
faith was assailed. 

He had been long intimate in the house of a very respectable 
family in the neighbourhood. He was there as their own child ; 
for him they had a very strong affection, and he felt for them 
in return, both affection and reverence. One evening the conver- 
sation in the family turned on the doctrine of Atonement ; and 
some observations then made filled his soul with doubts and fears. 
It was, in short, stated by one present, that, ' the Methodists were 
guilty of idolatry, for they gave that worship to Jesus Christ that 
belonged to the Father only.' Adam came home full of confusion : 
' What have I been doing ? Have I been adding idolatry to all 
the rest of my transgressions ? Have I had two Gods instead of 
one ? ' He then went into the cow-house or shij^pon, the first 
place he came to, kneeled down among the cattle, and began to ask 
pardon of God, fearing that he had given that glory to another, 
which was due to him alone. He was not satisfied, however, with 
this ; he thought he should go farther, and leave the name of Christ 
out of all his prayers : this proceeded so far that he did not like to 
converse about Him. What he had lately heard, represented him 
to his mind as an usurper ; and at last he could not bear to see his 
name in any religious book. Darkness now entered into his mind ; 
his spiritual fervour gradually diminished, till it was at last entirely 
gone. He prayed, but it was a form : he read, but it was without 
unction. He felt this lamentable change, and began to enquire 
whence it had arisen ? Importunate prayer, his former refuge, 
was suggested to his mind, as the only help ; for he had none to 
whom he could open his heart. That he might not be perceived 
by any of the family, he went once more among the cattle, a place 
to which he had often resorted, and fell down before his Maker, 
and prayed to this eflfect : ' O Lord God Almighty, look with pity 
on the state of my soul ! I am sinful, ignorant, and confused. I 
know not what to say, nor what to believe. If I be in an error. 



44 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

O Lord God, lead me into thy truth ! Thou kiiowest I could not 
deceive mj^self : thou knowest I esteem thy approbation beyond 
life itself; O my God, teach me what is right ! If I be in an error, 
O God, shew it to me, and deliver me from it ! O deliver me from it 
and teach me thy truth ! 0 God hear and have mercy upon me, 
for the sake of Jesus Christ.' These last words had no sooner 
dropped from his lips, than he started as if alarmed at himself. 
* What ! have I again been praying in the name of Jesus ? was this 
right ? ' Immediately his soul was filled with light ! — The name 
of Jesus was like the most odoriferous ointment poured out, he 
could clasp it to his heart, and say : ' Yes, my Lord and Saviour, 
thou hast died for me ; by thee alone I can come unto God ; there 
is no other name given from heaven among men by which we can 
be saved ! Through the merit of thy blood, I will take confidence 
and approach unto God ! ' He now felt that he was delivered 
from those ' depths of satan' by which his soul was nearly en- 
gulphed." Having quoted this long extract, I shall now take the 
liberty of offering a few remarks upon it before we proceed to 
other things. 

Every candid mind will admit that there are great allowances to 
be made for young converts, " seeking their way to Zion with their 
faces thitherwards," should they inadvertently lose their w^ay and 
wander into devious paths. In the former part of the extract, we 
find young Clarke in great perplexity because " he had not that 
faith by which he could Jay hold on the merit of that sacrifice (of 
Christ) for his personal salvation." This is a common source of 
perplexity, and it takes its rise from unscriptural notions of faith ; 
the faith which justifies the ungodly. It is not easy to compre- 
hend, what idea he attached to the words " laying hold on the 
merit of the Redeemer's sacrifice," as though it was something tan^ 
gihle ! All the benefit of Christ's redemption is conveyed to men, 
by means of the report concerning it ; and saving faith is nothing 
more nor less than crediting that report or being persuaded of its 
truth. What saith the scriptures ? " Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and thou shalt be saved." " The things concerning Jesus, 
were written that we might believe him to be the Christ, the Son 
of God, and that believing we might have life through his name." 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL.D., F.A.S. 



45 



" If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in 
thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be 
saved ; for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness (or jus- 
tification) and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation," 
for the scripture saith, " Whosoever believeth in him shall not be 
ashamed," Rom. x. It would be well for professors if they would 
pay more attention, on this point, to what the scripture says, and 
less to their religious guides : they might, in that case, conveniently 
dispense with many a cart load of systematic theology ! 

But another remark which I have to offer on the preceding 
extract, relates to the manner in which young Clarke obtained 
relief from the temptation with which he was beset, of denying the 
divinity of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Is it not unac- 
countably strange, that, while labouring under this anguish of 
mind, he should never once have had recourse to the Bible for a 
solution of his difficulties, never have consulted the only authentic 
source of information, the standard of truth and error, and the sole 
judge which could " end the strife, where wit and reason fail." He 
goes into a retired place, falls down upon his knees and beseeches 
the Lord, if he be in error to convince him of it and lead him into 
the truth. Now what was this but to imitate the conduct of the 
husbandman who, when his waggon was in a slough, contented 
himself with praying to Hercules to succour him without putting 
his own shoulder to the wheel ? What was it, to use his own ex- 
pression, but to " expect God, by a miracle, to bring him out of his 
difficulties," while neglecting the means which he had mercifully 
provided for the purpose of extricating him ? And then, it is 
worthy of notice, that the relief which he obtained did not come to 
him, as all true and divine assistance, on such a subject, must ever 
come to the guilty children of men, namely, in consequence of 
" the entrance of God's word giving him light and understanding," 
Ps. cxix. ver. 105, 130, &c., but from a fancied supernatural revela- 
tion, a flash of light filled his mind, threw him into an ecstacy, led 
him to appropriate Christ and his salvation, and he now felt de- 
livered from the devices of satan ! Was there not something en- 
thusiastic in all this ? The holy Spirit never operates upon the 
mind of any man, but through the medium of the written word. 



46 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

He opens the understanding to understand the scriptures, fixes the 
mind upon the eternal verities there recorded, and by that means 
communicates light and peace and comfort and joyful hope. Thus 
the word is the Spirit's sword by which he accomplishes all his 
saving purposes ; " it is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, 
and instruction in righteousness, thoroughly furnishing to every 
good word and work ; and is able to make wise unto salvation, 
through faith in Christ Jesus." " To the law and to the testimony, 
then : if men speak not according to his word, it is because there 
is no light in them." 

These observations are made with no captious or censorious view, 
not from any fondness for finding fault, or yet of differing with 
Dr. Clarke : but solely with a view to the reader's profit, to guard 
him against what appears to the writer to be a mistaken view of 
matters, and to apprize him of the necessity of taking the word of 
God for his guide and directory, in all the concerns of religion, and 
not be implicitly swayed by the dictates of fallible men, never 
losing sight of the fact, that " the best of men are but men at 
the best ! " 

Relieved from this perplexity, young Clarke set out anew in his 
progress towards the promised land, and heavenly rest. Though 
greatly encouraged," he declares, " he had not yet found rest to his 
soul/' notwithstanding he was the subject of this flash of illumina- 
tion, which enabled him to say, my Lord and Saviour, thou hast 
died for me ! " He had heard others talk of the Witness of the 
Spirit, and he knew several who rejoiced in it with joy unspeakable ; 
and he was determined never to give up till he was made a par- 
taker of the same grace. His distress was great ; yet it neither 
arose from the fear of hell, nor from any consciousness of God's 
hatred to him, but from the deep-felt want of the approbation and 
image of God. In seeking this, he had a species of mournful re- 
joicing, and often vented and expressed the feelings of his heart, in 
words expressive of his ardent desire to experience the power and 
peace, the pardon and salvation of his God. 

With this object in view, he proposed himself as a candidate for 
the reception of the Lord's Supper at the parish church, and, 
accordingly, waited on the Rector, Mr. Smith, to signify his desire 



OF THE REV, ADAM CLARKE, LL. 1)., F. A. S. 



47 



and ask his permission. The latter received him with great affec- 
tion and tenderness, expressing much satisfaction in finding so 
young a person thus inclined, and said, " I should be glad. Master 
Clarke, if you would go to the Rev. Mr. Younge, of Coleraine ; he 
is a very wise and good man, and will examine you, and give you 
the best advice, and if you will go now, I will write a note by you 
to Mr. Younge." He did so, and was examined by the latter out 
of the Church Catechism, to all which his answers were so satis- 
factory, that a note was written back to Mr. Smith, which, when 
he read, he appeared quite rejoiced and said, Mr. Younge, tells 
me that I may safely admit you to the Lord's Table." 

Being now .about to perform this most solemn act of devotion, 
his conscience took the alarm lest he should communicate un- 
worthily, and so eat and drink to his own condemnation. To 
avoid so tremendous an evil, he determined to go through the 
Week's Preparation, using it with earnest and deep concern ! As, 
however, he was obliged in the course of the week, to take a short 
journey on his father's business, which occupied the whole day 
(Thursday) he was unable to go through the prescribed form of 
prayers and meditations, and therefore, for fear of coming short, he 
did double work on Friday, and brought the two days into one ! 

It would have been very gratifying to have found Dr. Clarke 
entering his solemn protest against all this routine of preparatory 
work, and furnishing his own family and friends with a more 
rational and scriptural view of the nature and ends of the Lord's 
Supper. Instead of which, however, he merely adds, " If this 
were mistaken piety, it was at least sincere The remark would 
seem to indicate a kind of misgiving of mind that all was not as it 
should be. And certainly such views of the ordinance are not 
countenanced by the New Testament, and were never gathered 
from that Divine book. Though he received it as a " Memorial 
of the sacrifice of Christ, by which pardon, holiness, and heaVeu, 
were purchased for mankind," he looked to it as that act by which 

pardon was to be felt in his heart, and registered in his conscience, 
by the light and power of the Holy Spirit." 

The day appointed for his receiving the sacrament for the first 
time, was Easter Sunday. He repaired to the churchy and aftei" 



4*8 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

sermon went with his father to the Communion Table. When the 
minister came to him with the elements of bread and wine, the 
former was much affected, and when he said, The body of the 
Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee" he (the minister) 
was quite overcome : he sobbed, the tears gushed from his eyes, 
and he could not for some seconds proceed to the end of the 
sentence. Dr. Clarke's subsequent reflections on this whole 
transaction are as follows: — It would be well if all communi- 
cants, and all pastors, treated this most sacred ordinance as young 
Clarke and his minister did. On both sides it was supposed, and 
properly, that too much caution could not be used. Adam, on his 
part, attended conscientiously to the [New Testament? No ! but 
to the] Rubric, and consulted his minister: the minister, on his 
part, proceeded with a godly caution, lest he should distribute 
improperly these sacred elements. Is not the same caution still 
necessary ? but is it in general observed ? Why is not this ordi- 
nance, which represents the agony and bloody sweat, the cross and 
passion, the precious death and burial ; and, in a word, the re- 
demption of a lost world, by the sacrificial oflfering of the Lord 
Jesus, more devoutly and frequently impressed on the minds of 
young hearers, with the solemnity of that obligation ? Let proper 
warning be given, and strong exhortation to due preparation ; for 
surely it is as possible now to eat and drink our own condemnation 
in England, as it was to the Greek converts, eighteen hundred 
years ago, at Corinth." Now, a word or two on this quotation 
before we proceed. 

It cannot be denied that the Lord's Supper is a most solemn act 
of religious worship, and calls for the most devout attention and 
regards of all who name the name of Christ : but not more so than 
the ordinance of baptism. They were both instituted by the same 
authority ; they both of them embody the grand and distinguishing 
doctrines of the Gospel, the death, and burial, and resurrection of 
Christ, the Saviour of a lost world. Baptism was instituted by the 
Lord Jesus as the appointed means of introducing his disciples, 
that is, professed believers, into his visible kingdom. In that 
Divine ordinance the believer makes a public avowal of his faith in 
what the Gospel testifies concerning the person and character— the 



Ot^ THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 49 

resurrection and exaltation of the Son of God, " as delivered for 
our offences and raised again for our justification." The Lord's 
Supper recognizes the same glorious truths, the same facts and 
blessings, and, moreover, it represents the believer as feasting upon 
Christ, the antitype of the paschal lamb, and who is therefore desig- 
nated — " our passover sacrificed for us." This ordinance was de- 
livered by the apostles in Christ's name and by his authority, to his 
churches to be by them statedly observed as one of the branches of 
public worship, and the first Christians observed it every Lord's 
day, in commemoration of his death and passion, and in the view 
of his second coming. It was never designed by its divine institu- 
tor for any national church, such as that of Rome or of England, 
any more than was the ordinance of baptism intended for infants ; 
and the application of those ordinances to such uses and ends, has 
no sanction from Christ and his apostles. None but real believers 
in Christ can possibly reap any benefit from either ordinance; 
neither can they unless they observe them agreeably to the will of 
the institutor, as made known in his word, and exemplified in the 
approved practices of the first Christians. The views and impres- 
sions of Dr. Clarke in reference to the " sacrament" as he terms it, 
partake, unhappily, not a little of the popish doctrine of the mass ! 

It appears from his own acknowledgment, that the expected end 
in attending the " Sacrament " was not gained on young Clarke. 
He had not yet found that peace and assurance [of personal in- 
terest] of which he was in pursuit, and he resolves it into the doc- 
trine of the divine Sovereignty ! " It may seem strange," says he, 
" that one who was following God so sincerely, should have been 
so long without that powerful consolation of religion : but God is 
sovereign of his own ways ; and he gives and withholds according 
to his godly wisdom." Adam was ever ready to vindicate the ways 
of God in this respect. " It was necessary," said he, " that I should 
have hard travail. God was preparing me for an important work. 
I must, emphatically, sell all to get the pearl of great price. If I 
had lightly come by the consolations of the gospel, I might have 
let them go as lightly. It was good that I bore the yoke in my 
youth. The experience that I learned in my long tribulation, was 
none of the least of my qualifications as a minister of the gospel." 

H 



MEMOIRS OF THE LIFEj MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



Could I do it, without being thought cynical or captious, I would 
gladly analyze this paragraph, and enquire how far the sentiment 
contained in it, is supported by the doctrine of Christ and his 
apostles : for that is the standard to which all our sentiments and 
■all our experience must be brought, at last : and my fear is that 
the investigation would terminate in stamping it with an injurious 
impeachment of the character of the blessed God. For instance, it 
seems to imply that persons may be sincerely following after God, 
ardently longing for the enjoyment of his favour, and the consola- 
tions of the gospel, yet these are withheld from them, by an act 
of the divine sovereigntj\ But does the scripture really warrant 
such a supposition ? If it do, on what text or texts of scripture is 
it founded ? There is clearly no such case recorded in all the New 
Testament ; on the contrary, it is only necessary to read that book 
with attention to perceive that all the primitive believers were filled 
with joy the instant they heard of Christ and believed in him as 
the true Messiah, the Saviour of sinners. Those who proclaimed 
the gospel called it glad tidings — those who received it felt it to be 
so. When Peter proclaimed it on the day of Pentecost, to the 
murderers of the Lord of life and glory, three thousand of them 
gladly received his word, their hearts were filled with joy, and their 
mouths with praise, Acts ii. 37, &c. When Philip went down to 
Samaria, and preached Christ among them there was great joy 
in that city, ch. viii. When he preached to a solitary eunuch 
in the desert, he. sent him " on his way rejoicing," ver. 39. The 
disciples who believed at Antioch, were filled with joy and with 
the Holy Spirit," ch. xiii. 52. The despairing jailor no sooner re- 
ceived the word of God than he rejoiced, believing in God with all 
his house. When Paul carried the good news among the Galatians 
they received him as an angel of God ; and had such joy in the 
truth, they would have plucked out their right eye and given it to 
him. This joy did not spring from the perception of any thing 
good about themselves — any thing to recommend them to the favour 
of God ; for in truth, they possessed nothing of the kind. It sprang 
wholly and solely from the perception which they had, through 
divine illumination, of the suitableness of the salvation made known 
by the gospel, to their lost, miserable and ruined circumstances. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 51 



the perfection of Christ's sacrifice, the infinite value of the blood of 
God's dear and well-beloved Son, shed for the remission of sin— the 
freeness of the gospel, and the promise of salvation to all that 
believe it. The state of mind described by Dr. Clarke, as consti- 
tuting his individual experience, can only be resolved into the in- 
fluence of a perverted gospel, according to -which a sinner can take 
no comfort from the message of mercy, but through the medium 
of some qualification about himself, rendering him more fit to re- 
ceive its blessings than the common herd of sinners. This alone 
can account for the state which he describes in the following 
paragraph. 

" One morning, in great distress of soul, he went out to his work 
in the field : he began, but could not proceed, so great was his 
spiritual anguish. He fell down on his knees on the earth, and 
prayed, but seemed to be without power or faith. He arose, en- 
deavoured to work, but could not : even his physical strength ap- 
peared to have departed from him. He again endeavoured to 
pray, but the gate of heaven seemed as if barred against him. His 
faith in the atonement, so far as it concerned himself, was almost 
entirely gone : he could not believe that J esus had died for him : 
the thickest darkness seemed to gather round and settle on his soul. 
He fell flat on his face on the earth, and endeavoured to pray, but 
still there was no answer. He arose, but he was so weak, that he 
could scarcely stand. His agonies were indescribable ; he seemed 
to be for ever separated from God and the glory of his power. 
Death, in any form, he could have preferred to his present feelings, 
if that death could have put an end to them. No fear of hell pro- 
duced these terrible conflicts. He had not God's approbation ; he 
had not God's image. He felt that without a sense of his favour he 
could not live. Where to go, what to say, and what to do he found 
not ; even the words of prayer at last failed, he could neither plead 
nor wrestle with God." 

It is surely a most important inquiry, " In what light are we to 
view all this ? " Dr. Clarke evidently regarded it as a work of 
grace upon his heart, preparing him for the new birth ! An apostle, 
however, would have told him without hesitation, that he Was still 
in the flesh, under the law and the dominion of sin, all of which 



52 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

united their influence to bring forth fruit unto death, Rom. vii. 5. 
The whole account answers to what the scripture says of " the old 
man" and its actings — in other words, that natural and corrupt 
state which we all derive from our first parent, Adam, our foederal 
head and representative, and the connection we have with him in 
our first birth, whereby we are subjected to the dominion of sin 
both in its guilt and power. This " old man," or the flesh, as the 
apostle frequently terms it, has a conscience, Rom. ii. 15. — wisdom, 
1 Cor. i. 26 : James iii. 15. — reason, Acts xxviii. 29 : 2 Cor. x. 5. 
It may even have a faith in and zeal for God, Jam. ii. 19 : Rom. 
X. 2. and give a strict and conscientious obedience to his law, 
Phil. iii. 6. as in the case of young Clarke. This, "old man" is 
capable of great reformation by means of education, custom, ex- 
ample, and the law of God ; and is sometimes made to feel impres- 
Bions even from the gospel. Matt. xiii. 20. and yet after all still con- 
tinue the old man or flesh in its radical and governing principle. 
This is that state or constitution of things, which the inspired apos- 
tles term " the old man," Col. iii. 9. and " the flesh," Rom. viii. 8.— 
a state under the dominion of sin, the law, and death, — a state every 
way desperate, and incapable of being renewed. Urge upon it the 
requirements of the holy law of God, with the reasonableness, 
equity, and justice of its demands ; ply it with the motives of dan- 
ger, duty, and interest ; set before it the joys of heaven and the 
terrors of hell—life and death — it will stand proof against all, and 
only be the more exasperated : or whatever transient emotions it 
may feel, it continues radically the same. It is surely marvellous 
that a commentator on the holy scriptures should have confounded 
this with the work of grace, or the principles of " the new man" 
which is said to be " renewed in knowledge after the image of him 
that created him" ! It is not at all to be wondered at, that this 
unhappy mistake should have produced in the mind of young Clarke, 
the bitter fruits which have been adverted to. And there are upon 
record from his own pen, scenes of distress even more harassing than 
any thing we have yet noticed— all the work of corrupt nature, 
labouring to amend itself while under the influence of ignorance 
and unhelief-— ignorance of the sinner's own actual state, and un 
belief of ike testimony which God has given of his son. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



53 



From this terrible state of bondage and corruption there is only 
one effectual way of relief, and that is by faith in the atonement. 
This and this alone sets the sinner free from the guilt and domi- 
nion of sin ; from the law as the terms of acceptance, or the con- 
dition of life ; from an evil conscience, and the fear of death- — yea, 
from the wrath to come. Faith, or the knowledge of the truth as 
it is in Jesus, is the leading blessing of the new Covenant ; the 
first work of grace, or divine influence, upon the heart of a sinner, 
for " it comes by hearing the word of God," Rom. x. 17. With 
this stands connected, justification, or the forgiveness of sin ; peace 
with God ; adoption into his family ; the enjoyment of the Holy 
Spirit, the comforter ; sanctification, or holiness of heart and life, 
and the hope of the glory of God. This new state is called " the 
Spirit," in opposition to " the flesh ;" the " new man," or new crea- 
ture, in opposition to " the old man ;" " a state of grace " in oppo- 
sition to being " under the law and sin" No two things in nature 
can be more different than these two states ; and it is grievous 
to see them confounded together as they are in the relation of 
young Clarke's experience. The source of his sore distress, he 
tells us, was, " that he had not God's approbation ; he had not 
God's image ; he felt that without a sense of his favour he could 
not live." All this is very reasonable and proper : but, how did 
he expect to become possessed of them ? Assuredly not in the way 
that is pointed out in Scripture. When we open that blessed book 
we read that " He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life ; 
and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life ; but the wrath 
of God ahideth on him" Joh. iii. 36. In vain shall any of the fallen 
race of Adam hope for the divine approbation in any other way 
than by believing in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 
As Jesus Christ came down from heaven to do the will of his 
Father in the redemption of a lost world, so he fully accomplished 
it, putting away sin by the sacrifice of himself. THAT WORK, 
while it brings salvation to perishing sinners, at the same time 
brings the highest glory to God, who has consequently declared 
his eternal approbation of it — THAT WORK is the centre of 
Jehovah's delight ; he rests for ever well-pleased in it, and his ap- 
probation rests upon all those and only those who, like himself 



54 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

delight in it. The knowledge and belief of this glorious truth, is 
the only thing that can communicate " a sense of the favour of 
God" into the human mind, and it is inseparably connected with 
it. Every true believer must experience that blessing more or 
less, and the enjoyment of it will always be in proportion to the 
strength or weakness of his faith. The Gospel cannot be believed 
in truth and reality, but it must convey into the mind, both peace 
and joy — peace of conscience, or a freedom from the condemning 
sentence of the divine law ; and peace, or a state of reconciliation 
with God, and the joyful hope of eternal life. And this ''faith 
working hy love" renews the image of God on the human soul, 
which image was lost by transgression. It is by beholding, in the 
mirror of the gospel, the glory of the blessed God, shining in the 
face, or person and work of Jesus Christ, that the believer is 
changed (assimilated) into the same image, from glory to glory, 
even as by the Spirit of the Lord —or the Lord, the Spirit. 

This appears to me to be the scriptural account of the matter, 
but young Clarke was looking for these things being, somehow, 
communicated to him hy immediate revelation ! He expected some 
token of the divine favour and approbation to be conveyed into 
his mind, by a private whisper of the Spirit, aside from the know- 
ledge and belief of the truth, and he would persuade us that he 
obtained it. While he was " in agonies indescribable," he felt 
strongly in his soul. Pray to Christ ! He looked up confidently to 
the Saviour of sinners, his agony subsided and he became calm. 
A glow of happiness seemed to thrill through his whole frame ; all 
guilt and condemnation were gone. He examined his conscience, 
and found it no longer a register of sins against God. He looked 
to heaven and all was sunshine ; he searched for his distress, but 
could not find it. He felt indescribably happy ^ but could not tell 
the cause! a change had taken place within him, of a nature 
wholly unknown before, and for which he had no name. He sat 
down upon the ridge where he had been working, full of ineffable 
delight. He praised God, and he could not describe for what ! for 
he could give no name to his work. His heart was light, his 
physical strength returned, and he could bound like a roe. He 
felt a sudden transition from darkness to light j from guilt and 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE. LL. D., F, A. S. 



55 



oppressive fear, to confidence and peace. He could now draw 
nigh to God with more confidence than he ever could to his 
earthly father ; he had freedom of access, and he had freedom of 
speecfu He was like a person who had got into a new world, 
where, although every object was strange, yet each was pleasing ; 
and now he could magnify God for his creation, a thing he never 
could do before ! 0, what a change was here ! and yet, lest he 
should be overwhelmed with it, its name and its nature were in a 
great measure hidden from his eyes." " He continued in peace 
and happiness all the week : the next Lord's day, there was a 
love-feast in Coleraine, he went to it, and during the first prayer, 
kneeled in a corner, with his face to the wall. While praying, the 
Lord Jesus seemed to appear to the eyes of his mind, as he is 
described," Rev. i. 13, 14, " clothed with a garment down to his 
/ feet, and girt about the breasts with a golden girdle ; his head and 
his hair white as snow, and his eyes like a flame of fire." And 
though in strong prayer before, he suddenly stopped, and said, 
though not perhaps in a voice to be heard by those who were by 
him, " Come nearer. Oh, Lord Jesus, that I may see thee more 
distinctly 1" Immediately he felt as if God had shone upon the 
work he had wrought, and called it by its own name ; he fully and 
clearly knew that he was a child of God ; the Spirit of God bore 
this witness to his conscience, and he could no more have doubted 
of it, than he could have doubted of the reality of his existence or 
the identity of his person. " Meridian evidence put doubt to 
flight." 

" In ordinary minds," says Dr. Clarke, " or those naturally 
feeble, all this might pass for delusion ; his penitential fears and 
distresses might appear as the effects of a gloomy superstition ; and 
his subsequent peace and happiness, and the sudden nature of his 
inward change, as the consequences of the workings of a strong 
imagination, apt, under religious impressions, to degenerate into 
enthusiasm" But the learned Doctor would have us to 
believe, that every thing of this kind was out of the question, here. 
No one was more jealous on these points than he was. He was 
accustomed to examine every thing to the bottom, &c. &c. ! ! ! 

It was surely not in vain that Solomon advised, " Let another 



56 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

man praise thee and not thine own mouth ; a stranger, and not- 
thine own lips," Prov. xxvii. 2. Or another prophet, when he 
said, " Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for 
wherein is he to be accounted of," Isa. ii. 22. Or a third, when he 
confessed, " O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in him- 
self ; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps," Jer. x. 23. 
The great prophet of the Christian church has apprised us that it 
will, in the great day of the Lord, turn out to the everlasting con- 
fusion of many that they have been too confident of their interest in 
the Divine favour, and connection with the Saviour : " Many will 
say unto me in that day, ' Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in 
thy name ? and in thy name have cast out devils ; and in thy name 
done many wonderful works ?' And then will I profess unto them, 

1 never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity," 
Matt. vii. 22, 23. Let us judge ourselves, that we be not judged. 
The apostles wisely inculcate upon Christians, the motive oi fear, 
and press upon them the duty of self examination, Heb. iv. L 

2 Cor. xiii. 5. Self-love is a very subtle principle, and it led the 
pious Psalmist to pray, " Keep back thy servant from presump- 
tuous sins ; let them not have dominion over me," Psa. xix. 19. 
These hints are occasioned by the manner of Dr. Clarke's express- 
ing himself, in relation to his confidence of personal interest in 
Christ. In a sermon, which he preached at Plymouth on the 
" Witness of the Spirit," he thus expressed himself: " I have pro- 
fessed to know that God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven me all 
my sins : and being thus converted, I am come forth to strengthen 
my brethren. Most of you know I am no enthusiast ; that I have 
given no evidences of a strong imagination ; that I am far from 
being the subject of sudden hopes or fears ; that it requires 
strong reasons and clear argumentation to convince me of the 
truth of any 'proposition, not previously known. Now, I do 
profess to have received, through God's eternal mercy, a clear 
EVIDENCE of my acceptance with God ; and it was given 
me after a sore night of spiritual affliction ; and precisely in 
that way in which the Scriptures, already quoted, promise this 
blessing. (!) It has also been accompanied with power over sin; 
and it is now upwards of seven years since I received it j and I hold 



' OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 57 

it, through the same mercy, as explicitly, as clearly, and as satis- 
fictorily, as ever. No work of imagination could ever have pro- 
duced or maintained any feeling like this. I am, therefore, safe in 
affirming, for all these reasons, that we have neither misunder- 
stood nor misapplied the Scriptures in question." 

Such was the pinnacle of assurance which the subject of this 
memoir had attained at a very early period of his life. What now 
if a disciple of William Huntington should step forward and 
challenge a competition with it in favour of the latter, and upon 
the very same grounds, viz. those of immediate revelation, miracu- 
lous interposition, and preternatural suggestion ? Both the 
creeds, and the conduct, and characters of the two men, were so 
widely different, that, in the opinion of each other, if one were a 
Christian, the other was not ; if one were right, the otlier was 
wrong. Huntington dictated his own epitaph, a few days before 
his death, in these words : " Here lies the Coal-heaver, beloved of 
his God, but abhorred of men. The omniscient Judge, at the 
grand assize, shall ratify and confirm this, to the confusion of 
many tliousands ; for England and its metropolis shall know, that 
there hath been a prophet among them. — W. H. S. S." 

Such was the confidence of William Huntington, who professed 
to have a " clear evidence" of his acceptance with God. After a 
night of sore darkness, he emerges into day-light ; and now 
nothing happens to him as it happens to others. If the snow 
melts in one ilight; if he finds two or three fish dead, near their 
pond ; if two birds fight, and he picks up the one that falls ; or 
even, if he makes known his wants, and then some kind soul helps 
him out of them, — -all these are viewed by him as special providen- 
tial interpositions in his favour." " Boasting alike of his impro- 
prieties and his successes, of his known obliquities and their for- 
giveness through faith, he at once takes to himself the rcpiitatiod 
of holiness, wears its garb, and pretends to special Providential 
interferences on his behalf, in the minutest and most unwoithy 
things ; and working thus upon ignorance and credulity,, partly 
indebted to the ignorance of men, and partly to the simpleness of^ 
women, he erects himself into a dictator of divinity. He and his 
are to be esteemed as chosen people ; while, he sternly arraigns 

I 



58 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

and eternally anathematizes, all who protest against his spiritual 
decisions. His final sentence on poor John Wesley is not yet for- 
gotten."* 

In adverting to the renowned William Huntington, I have not 
the smallest idea of drawing a comparison between him and the 
subject of this memoir ; in fact, the two men were not to be com- 
pared. But I do wish the reader to examine whether there was 
not some similarity between the respective grounds of confident 
interest in the Divine favour; and that if we admit its validity in 
one case, whether we can reject it in the other ? For my own 
part, I greatly doubt its admissibility in either. I do not doubt its 
being the high privilege of the real children of God, to obtain a 
well-grounded assurance of their personal interest in the Divine 
favour, to know that " Christ loved them and gave himself for 
them;" but I do not think it can be satisfactorily attained by 
reflecting upon any illummations or suggestions we may have 
been the subjects of; because, it appears to me, that these things 
are often experienced by persons who afterwards fall away, and 
bring no fruit unto perfection. The apostle Paul had full confi- 
dence that the Thessalonians were the elect children of God ; but 
he inferred it from the effects which the Gospel had upon them. 
It came to them not in word only, but in power, and in the Holy 
Spirit, and in much assurance ; it led them to patient suflfering for 
Christ's sake ; to abound " in the work of faith, and labour of love, 
and patience of hope, in the Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thess. i. 3 — 5. 
And it is in this way that the apostle Peter directs those to whom 
he wrote his epistles, to make their calling and election sure to 
their own minds, viz. by adding to their faith virtue, knowledge, 
temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity ; 
for, saith he, " if ye do these things ye shall never fall, for so an 
entrance shall be administered unto you abundantly into the ever- 
lasting kingdom of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," 2 Pet. i. 
10, 11. It was not in this way that either Adam Clarke, or 
William Huntington, attained to a knowledge of their personal 
interest in Christ. 



• See The Pulpit, by Onesimus, Vol. I. p. 201-6. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL.D., F. A.S. 



59 



Before we dismiss this topic, there is one other point which de- 
serves a passing remark. Dr. Clarke, in recording the circumstan- 
ces of his early life, thus emphatically calls upon his readers to 
examine his case, evidently holding it up as a lesson to posterity. 
" O reader, lay these things to heart : here was a lad that had 
never been a profligate — had been brought up in the fear of God, 
and, who, for a considerable time had been earnestly seeking his 
peace, apparently cut off from life and hope I This did not arise 
from any natural injirmity of his own mind: none who knew him, 
in any period of his life, could suspect this : it was a sense of the 
displeasure of a holy God, from having sinned against him ; and 
yet his sins were those of a little boy, which most would be disposed 
to pass by ; for he was not of an age to be guilty of flagrant crimes ; 
and yet how sorely did he suffer, in seeking to be born again ; to 
have his conscience purged from dead works, and to have his 
nature renewed ! " 

Seeking to be born again ! But will the scriptures of eternal 
truth warrant us in admitting the possibility of such a case ? So 
far from it that, on the contrary, they thus describe the state of all 
those without exception who have not yet found rest to their souls 
by faith in the atoning blood of Christ — " Dead in trespasses and 
sins : wherein they walk, according to the course of this world, 
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now 
worketh in the children of disobedience : among whom also we all 
had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling 
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the 
children of wrath, even as others, Eph. ii. 1, 3. This, then, is the 
state in which all the fallen race of Adam, whether Jew or Gentile, 
are by nature : Having the understanding darkened, they are 
alienated from the divine and spiritual life, — the life of God, through 
the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their 
heart," ch. iv. 18. : they are the willing slaves of sin and satan, 
Rom. vi, 16. : and so they are " without hope and without God in 
the world," Eph. ii. 12. Is it possible for persons in such a state 
to know any thing of real peace, or true happiness ? Assuredly 
not ; they are in their sins, and the wrath of God abideth on them, 
" There is no peace, to the wicked, saith my God." Is. Ivii. 21. 



MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY,. AND WRITINGS, 



The eonscienee of such an one is a source of perpetual disquietude. 
It is continually testifying against him that he has violated certain 
principles which ought to have guided him and regulated his con- 
duct both towards God and man : he is conscious of a disturbance 
of the moral order within him, and this must unavoidably occasion 
much disquietude and uneasiness. Every violation of the holy 
law of God never fails to connect with it a portion of self-condem- 
nation. Every deliberate act of transgression wounds the sinner's 
peace ; tears and lacerates the mind. Hence the wicked are com- 
pared to the troubled sea, whose waters continually cast up mire 
and dirt. Under the dominion of their unbridled lust and passions, 
their peace of mind is liable to be disturbed and affected by every 
wind. It is not one tyrant that the sinner is called to obey, but 
many : and what aggravates the evil and increases his torment is, 
that these tyrannical masters have separate interests which keep 
up a perpetual collision — there is a continual strife and conflict for 
the ascendancy, as to which shall be obeyed in preference to the 
other. Perhaps sensual pleasure prefers its claim to be indulged ; 
but here some contrary passion, such as avarice, or the love of money, 
comes into competition and thwarts the love of pleasure. It may 
be, that ambitiun puts in its claim to be heard and obeyed ; but the 
gratification of this passion may be incompatible with both the 
love of pleasure and tlie love of money. And so in various other 
ways, the sinner's unbridled and unruly passions are brought into 
collision with each other, striving for the mastery, and to each in 
its turn he is destined to become the unhappy victim to the de- 
struction of all internal peace and serenity of mind. In short, he 
never realizes an object, the possession of which can afford him 
any solid peace or lasting happiness, because his passions hurry 
him on to the pursuit of those things which are not capable of yield- 
ing it. The love of the world, the pleasures of sin, riches, honours, 
&c., however amply enjoyed, must leave the immortal mind restless 
and dissatisfied with them, because, in their very nature, they are 
unsuitable to its cravings and wants, they are unsatisfying and 
vain. And this is that identical state which the Saviour has in 
view, when he invites " the weary and heavy laden to come to him 
for rest," Matt. xi. 28. Man was formed for enjoying his proper 



, OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 61 

life in the favour of his Maker; this he lost by sin, and in vain 
does he seek to recover it in any of the pursuits above mentioned. 
The Most High has laid an arrest upon creation, and forbidden it 
to communicate this boon to an unbeliever. The doctrine runs 
throughout the whole of divine revelation, and is written as with a 
sun-beam. Persons in their sins may have many pleasures, but 
they can have no lasting peace. It is not said they have no mirth ; 
they may revel in dissipation and luxury, in chambering and Wan- 
tonness, but they are strangers to that peace of mind which con- 
nects with it the enjoyment of the favour of God. The eternal 
Sovereign has in effect said, " give them health, give them strength, 
let them have friends, an abundance of the good things of this 
world, com and wine and oil, riches and honours and pleasures, 
but withhold peace from them." Such is the universal lot of man 
till he come to Christ. 

That persons labouring under this state of mental bondage 
should ardently desire to be delivered from it, is perfectly natural ; 
and in no possible way is it more natural to seek this relief, than 
in a round of religious duties, more especially where there is any 
remaining tenderness of conscience. Now this appears to have 
been precisely young Clarke's case. He was labouring after that 
peace, which the gospel alone can communicate; that life which 
lies in the divine favour, but he sought it not by faith, but by a 
round of religious exercises which were to fit and qualify him for 
the enjoyment of the divine favour. It is manifest that all these 
exercises turned upon a self righteous principle, and this sufficiently 
accounts for his soul's perplexity. It is surely a great mistake to 
suppose and say that he was sincerely seeking to be born again. 
All that the scripture teaches us concerning regeneration, or the 
new birth, flatly contradicts the supposition. For, how is it, accord^ 
ing to the scriptures, that any are born again ? Is it not by the, 
belief of the truth which is testified concerning Christ ? See, then,, 
the absurdity to which we are at once reduced ! He was seeking 
to believe that to be true, which all the while he held to be false ! 
Had his mind been enlightened, through divine influence, into the 
import and evidence of the resurrection of Jesus ; to perceive that 
God is for ever well-pleased in him, as the substitute of the. 



62 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

guilty, it would at once have put an end to all his fearful distress 
of mind, and to all his self-justifying labours:— fteZimw^ Mm, he 
would at once, have entered into rest, according to the scriptures. 
Matt. xi. 28., Heb. iv. 3. ; and he would have known, by happy ex- 
perience, what it is to enjoy a sense of the divine favour, and to 
have his conscience purged from dead works to serve the living and 
true God. But unhappily his mind was fortified against the truth, 
by ignorance, and prejudice, and erroneous notions, which fore- 
stalled the judgment, and kept him in a state of miserable bondage, 
as it has done, and still does, thousands of others in every age. 

The history of Adam Clarke, so far as we have yet prosecuted 
it, relates to what took place before he quitted school. Classical 
learning, we are told, now became extremely easy to him, and he 
pursued it with avidity. He read Lucian and Juvenal with ease. 
The scenic representation which he had had of Christ in his glori- 
fied state, while attending the love-feast at Coleraine, as formerly 
mentioned, continued to diffuse light and serenity over his mind, 
and greatly illumined and improved his understanding and judg- 
ment. Difficulties vanished, and learning now appeared to him 
little more than an exercise and cultivation of memory. He has 
been often heard to say : " After I found the peace of God to my 
conscience, and was assured of my interest in the Lord Jesus ; I 
believe I may safely assert, that I learned more in one day, on an 
average, than I formerly could do, with equal application, in a 
whole month. And no wonder ; my soul began to arise out of the 
ruins of its fall, by the favour of the Eternal Spirit. It was not on 
the affections or the passions this Spirit worked ; but upon under- 
standing, judgment, and will. These being rectified and brought 
under a divine influence, the lower faculties came on in their train, 
purified and refined. The change in my heart was the effect of the 
change in my immortal spirit. I saw, from my own case, that 
religion was the gate to true learning and science ; and that those 
who went through their studies without this, had, at least, double 
work to do ; and in the end not an equal produce. My mind became 
enlarged to take in any thing useful. I was now separated from 
every thing that could impede my studies, obscure or debase my 
mind. Learning and science I knew came from God, because he 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



63 



is the fountain of all knowledge j and properly speaking, these 
things belong to man ; God created them, not for himself — not for 
angels — but for man ; and he fulfils not the design of his Creator, 
who does not cultivate his mind in all useful knowledge, to the 
utmost of his circumstances and power." At the same time, he 
was convinced that studies, which were not connected with religion, 
and which did not lead to God, not having his will and glory for 
their objects, could never be sanctified, and consequently could 
never be ultimately useful either to their possessors or to others. 

Every observation on human learning coming from so great a 
master of it, must be entitled to regard : and the reader will not 
need any recommendation from so humble an individual as myself 
to stimulate his attention to whatever Dr. Clarke may say on that 
subject. It was about this time that a friend lent him Dr. Derham s 
Astro- Theology ; and another kind friend made him a present of 
an achromatic telescope. The Bible and Dr. Derham's invaluable 
book, he now read in unison, at every spare hour of the day, and 
the telescope he used as often as possible during the night season ; 
thus he prosecuted his study of Astronomy. He was delighted 
with the phases of the moon, which he carefully watched through 
her increase and decrease, nor was he long in coming to the con- 
clusion that the moon was a habitable and inhabited world, and 
that all the planets were doubtless the same — all abodes of intelli- 
gent beings, formed and supported by the same beneficent hand, 
and in reference to the same gracious end. Ray's " Wisdom of God 
in the Creation," carried his views still farther, and prepared 
him for the study of natural philosophy. Half a century ago, 
the treatises now mentioned were in great repute, and certainly the 
most popular works on those subjects : since that time, wonder- 
ful improvements have been made by a variety of authors, sim- 
plifying the study of those sublime and interesting topics, until, 
one would incline to think, a ne plus ultra, had been achieved in 
Mr. Sharon Turner's " Sacred History/ of the Creation" — a work 
which seems to combine in an octavo volume, the substance of all 
that had preceded it, with endless additions from the rich furniture 
of the mind of its most estimable author. Who can wonder that a 
book of such transcendant merit, should have reached a third edition 
in the short space of nine months ! But to return to young Clarke, 



64 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



The doctrine of gravitation was to him a series of wonders in 
itself; and the centripetal and centrifugal motions of all the 
planets, primary and secondary, gave him the most exalted idea of 
the wisdom, skill, and providence of God. Though he had no 
instructor in these things, and no instruments but his little tele- 
scope, yet he gained so much philosophical knowledge, as gave 
him to see God in all his works. The knowledge of the technical 
terms in these sciences, he obtained from a work now become 
nearly obsolete, viz. " Dictionarium Anglo- Britannicarum ; or, A 
General English Dictionary, by John Kersey, 8vo. London, 1715," 
of which Dr. Clarke says, that it contains more valuable matter 
for students, than any other of its size yet offered to the public. 
The Dictionary of Benjamin Martin, which he afterwards got, 
was also very useful. The latter work he always considered, for 
correctness of etymology, and accuracy of definition, by far the 
best on its plan, before or since published. 

It has already been mentioned, that young Clarke was never 
expert at figures ; yet, discovering an inclination to become 
acquainted with the more ornamental branches of the mathe- 
matics, his father placed him under the care of a very eminent 
mathematician in Coleraine. With this gentleman he continued 
only long enough to learn dialling in a general way. About the 
year 1778, he made an effort to learn French, from the only 
person competent to teach it in that quarter, namely, Mr. Edward 
Murphy, an eminent classical teacher, who then kept a school in 
the parish church of Desart Martin, not far distant from Maghera- 
felt. He went thither, lodged with a friend, several miles from the 
place, attended Mr. Murphy's school, walking out every morning 
and back every night in the depth of winter, and sat in the cold 
church without fire during the day. 

Soon after this, Adam was put apprentice to Mr. Francis 
Bennet, a linen merchant of Coleraine, a distant relative, with 
every prospect of secular advantage. This, however, was in 
opposition to the opinion of all his religious friends, who were 
fully persuaded that he ought rather to have gone into the 
ministry. But the incapacity of his parents to support the 
expense necessary to such a step, determined them to accept an 



« 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL.D., F.A.S. 65 

iftter from Mr. Bennet to that effect, considering it an opening of 
Providence, which might eventually lead to a respectable com- 
petency. He was himself entirely passive, for as yet he was 
ignorant of the designs of the Lord ; and with him the grand point 
was, not to get money, but to save his soul. He went first a 
month on trial ; that being ended, and to mutual satisfaction, his 
parents were expected to take the first steps to get him indentured, 
but that was strangely neglected from time to time, until he had 
been with Mr. Bennet eleven months. During this time, his 
religious friends strongly advised him against being bound, think- 
ing that God had assuredly called him to the work of the ministry. 
The subject was submitted to his parents, who put their decided 
veto upon it, and insisted upon his continuing with Mr. Bennet. 
This brought him into great perplexity. He had begun to doubt 
whether the business was such as would well comport with his 
spiritual profit. He fancied he saw several things which he could 
scarcely perform without bringing guilt upon his conscience. In 
particular, he saw that he must necessarily be exposed to public 
company, in attending fairs and markets, for the purpose of pur- 
chasing linen from the weavers. A clear conscience, he concluded, 
was preferable to the best inheritance ; and he was willing to earn 
his bread with the sweat of his brow at the most laborious and 
servile employment, rather than gain thousands with the prospect 
of suffering spiritual loss. 

There was stationed at that time, on the Coleraine and London- 
derry circuit, a Mr. John Bredin, an eminent preacher in the 
Wesleyan connection. This person had paid much attention to 
Adam Clarke, lent him books, and took considerable pains to 
instruct him in the most important matters. Mr. Bredin was 
among the number of those who thought young Clarke destined 
for the ministry, and was consequently against his being articled 
as an apprentice. Accordingly he wrote to Mr. Wesley, laying 
the whole matter before him. The latter kindly offered to take 
the young disciple, for a time, to his great school at Kingswood, 
neai Bristol, where he might increase his acquaintance with the 
Greek and Roman classics ; have the opportunity of exercising 
his ministerial talents in the various societies in that neighbour- 

K 



66 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

hood ; and thus be perfected in his ministerial qualifications. 
When Adam laid this proposal before his parents, they were quite 
indignant, and strongly protested against it ! Mr. Bennet, at the 
same time, made him a very advantageous offer, viz. that if he did 
not like his business, he would advance him money, either to be 
employed in some business at home, or to trade in Irish produce 
(butter, hides, and tallow) to England; but this proposal he care- 
fully concealed from his parents, his mind being now bent on 
embracing Mr. Wesley's proposal and going to England. He 
accordingly thanked Mr. Bennet for his kind offer, but told him 
that he had made up his mind to quit the business, and in a short 
time they parted on the most friendly terms. 

The year that Adam Clarke spent with Mr. Bennet at Coleraine 
is characterized by too many striking features, to be dismissed 
without remark. It appears to have been the year of our Lord, 
1781, at which time he could not have been less than twenty years 
of age, for he calculated to have been born a. d. 1760. He says it 
was very useful to his religious growth, and his increase in useful 
knowledge. He had now the opportunity of attending the 
ministry of a very instructive preacher, several times in the w«ek, 
probably Mr. John Bredin, before-mentioned. The preaching at 
five o'clock in the morning, he found particularly useful, because it 
was directed chiefly to subjects connected with Christian experi- 
ence. His situation also brought him into contact with a number 
of valuable friends and associates, from whose conversation and 
kindness he derived much profit. And indeed the whole circle of 
his new friends laboured to promote his welfare, " all believing 
that God had called him to fill some important office in his church." 

From a Miss Younge, of Coleraine, he obtained the loan of 
two books, which were rendered remarkably useful to him, indeed, 
beyond all others, he had ever read, the Bible excepted. These 
were Baxter's Saints' Everlasting Rest, abridged by Wesley ; and 
the Journal of David Brainerd, the American missionary. From 
the first of these he obtained a deeper acquaintance with experi- 
mental Christianity ; and from the second, he imbibed the spirit of 
a missionary. The former, he thought, contributed to make him a 
better Christian ; and the latter helped to form his mind to the 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 67 

model of the Christian ministry. " If I continue to be a Chris- 
tian," said Dr. Clarke, at a late period of life, " I owe it under 
God to the former ; if I ever was a preacher, I owe it under the 
same grace, to the latter." His kind benefactress, afterwards 
became Mrs. Rutherford, and he never forgot her kindness ; he 
regarded her as a mother in Israel, and as one who had been 
instrumental to him of great good. Her husband was a Methodist 
preacher, and had been accustomed to come to the parish of 
Agherton, where the parents of Adam Clarke resided, and to 
preach in different places. The latter followed him wherever he 
went ; and in returning from the places of preaching, was in the 
habit of walking behind him, and took delight in literally treading 
in his steps ! One evening, Mr. Rutherford observing a little lad 
trotting after him, whom he had often observed at the preaching, 
turned about and thus accosted him, Well, child, God hath said, 
I love them that love me, and they that seek me early shall find 
me." He said no more at the time ; but Adam began to ruminate 
on what he had said, and thus reasoned with himself: " What 
does he mean by ' they that seek me early' ? I rise early, and my 
first work is prayer, is that what is meant ? No, it is they who 
seek God early in life, when they are young : then thus I seek, and 
thus I will seek the Lord. He said also, ' they shall find me', 
others, perhaps, may seek and not find ; but God says to the 
young, they shall find." This gave him great encouragement. 

During the time that Adam was at Mr. Bennet's, he had to 
endure some things that were very disagreeable to him. One of 
these was the crooked temper of a female domestic, who hated 
religion and persecuted him, for no other reason but because he 
was religious ! She was excessively boisterous and profane ; 
rejected in the most awful manner whatever salutary counsel was 
given her ; and vented her implacable enmity against Adam with- 
out measure. The latter bore all her insolence and insults without 
even a complaint. When he endeavoured to reason and remon- 
strate with her, she made no scruple to curse him, and the 
Methodists, and their religion ! Adam, however, continued to pray 
for her, that God would convert her from the error of her way, and 
his prayers were at last answered. Remorse took hold of her 



MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



coii Science ; she was struck with the deepest convictions a huuian 
heart could feel; she literally roared for the disquiet of her soul. 
He was now obliged to use every method to assuage her distress 
and comfort her. He had to ransack the Bible for promises to 
penitent sinners, in order to prevent her falling into absolute 
despair. So terrible were her apprehensions of the judgments of 
God, arising from the sinfulness of her heart and the wickedness of 
her life, that she was frequently in danger of laying violent hands 
upon herself Her continual application to him for advice and 
direction became at length not a little irksome ; for such was her 
distraction of mind she could scarcely profit by any thing said to 
her. After passing through a scene of indescribable mental agony, 
she at last got a glimpse of the Lamb of God which taketh away 
the sin of the world, and found redemption in his blood. And 
now the lion became a lamb : all her fierce and violent tempers 
were removed : she became meek and gentle. Mr. Clarke saw her 
thirty years after this, and found her walking steadily in the ways 
of the Lord. She has since acknowledged that she often felt the 
keenest twinges of conscience when she has been most violent in 
her contradicting and blaspheming. Verily, " the way of trans- 
gressors is hard !" 

It would seem reasonable to expect that, after the extraordinary 
manifestations which young Clarke professed to have been 
favoured with, of his special interest in the Saviour's love, and the 
advantages of religious instruction which he enjoyed in Coleraine, 
that his peace would have flowed like a river, and his Christian 
walk and deportment have been such as became the Gospel of 
God; but the case was not altogether such according to his own 
account of the matter. There is something so very eccentric and 
unaccountable in the following narrative from his own pen, that I 
cannot resist the temptation to lay it before the reader. It is true, 
that he speaks of it " as a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of 
Satan, sent to buffet him," thus comparing it with an incident in 
the life of the apostle Paul, recorded 2 Cor. xii. ; but the reader 
■would do well to examine whether there be the smallest similarity 
in the two cases, before he admits the comparison. 

He tells us that as his grand enemy could not succeed in tempt- 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



69 



ing him to commit outward sin, he strove with all his skill and 
cunning, to harass his mind, and cause him to push the principles 
which regulate moral conduct beyond their natural boundaries. 
Fasting, abstinence, and the most solemn regard for truth, he 
carried to the utmost pitch of scrupulous observance. He became 
so scrupulous about his food, and practised such an excessive 
degree of self-denial, that he was worn down to little else tlian skin 
and bone. As he saw the world full of hollow friendships, shallow 
pretensions to religion, outsides of all kinds, and real substantial 
wickedness, he was led to contemplate the Almighty as the God of 
truth and the God of justice. His views of him under these 
characters, often nearly swallowed up his soul : and the terror of 
the God of truth and justice made him afraid. He became doubly 
watchful in all his conduct; guarded the avenues of his heart; 
took care to do nothing for which he had not the authority of 
God's word and the testimony of his conscience ; and spoke little, 
and even that little with extreme caution. From this he was led 
to analyze his words in such a way, in order that he might speak 
nothing but what was indubitable truth, that in process of time 
every thing presented itself to him in a hypothetical form ; and a 
general system of doubtfulness in every thing relating to himself 
took place. 

This had a very a>vful, and indeed almost fatal, effect upon his 
memory ; so much afraid was he lest he should say any thing that 
was not strictly true ; and on many subjects he would not get full 
information, that he might no longer affirm or deny any thing. 
He distrusted his memory, and the evidence of his senses so much, 
tluit the former seemed to record transactions no longer, and the latter 
only served for personal preservation. When he has gone on an 
errand and returned, he would give in the most embarrassing 
account. " Adam, have you been at such a place ?" " I think I 

have, sir." " Did you see Mr. ?" " I believe I did." « Did 

you deliver the message ?" " I think so." What did he say ?" 
" I cannot say : I am not sure that he said so and so, if I have 
ever been there and seen him ; and I am not sure that he did not 
say, what I have just now told you." " Why, Adam, I cannot 
tell what you mean ! pray be more attentive in future." 



70 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

After some time, the empire of doubt became so established, 
that he appeared to himself a visionary being, and the whole world 
little else than a congeries of ill-connected ideas. He thought at 
last J that the whole of life, and indeed universal nature, was a dream* 
He could recollect having had what were termed dreams, and in 
them all appeared to be realities ; but when he awoke he found all 
to be unreal mockeries : and why might not his present state be 
the same ? At length he doubted whether he ever had such 
dreams ; whether he ever made such reflections ; or whether he 
even now thought or reflected ! 

However ideal all this may appear to the reader, he assures us 
that his sufferings, in consequence, were most distressingly real. 
He spoke to a particular friend upon the subject; he stared at 
poor Clarke, was confounded, knew nothing of the matter, and 
could give him no advice. After suffering exquisitely, he went to 
one of the preachers, and began as well as he could, to lay his case 
before him. The preacher said abruptly, " What, are you going 
mad ? It is a shame for you to be occupied with such nonsense." 
This very proper remonstrance roused Adam from his reverie; 
he hastened away from him, but never afterwards opened his mind 
to any person on the subject. In this calamitous state he con- 
tinued for three weeks, and they appeared like so many centuries. 
He prayed much ; immediately forgot that he had prayed ; and 
went to prayer again ! He either forgot to do what he was 
ordered ; or forgot, when he had done it, that he had been thus 
employed, and wondered to find the work done which he had been 
sent to execute, though himself a little before had been the agent ! 

Thus far Dr. Clarke ; and I cannot but express my surprise that 
he should have imagined there was any thing of true religion in 
the matter, so as to render it worth recording for the benefit of 
posterity. " God hath not given us the spirit of fear," saith the 
apostle, " but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." The 
religion of the first Christians was a reasonable service. In the 
instance before us, we have every thing the reverse of this ; and to 
place such reveries to the account of any Divine influence exerted 
upon the mind is to cast a dishonourable reflection on the God of 
peace and order, of truth and holiness. Dr. Clarke thought " that 



OF THE UEY. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. f5. 



71 



he was permitted to fall into this state partly for his own sake and 
partly for the sake of others ; he was thus sifted as wheat ; all the 
trials he ever came through were nothing compared with this! 
" He learned from it, how sovereignly necessary was the curb and 
superintendance of reason, to bind, control, correct, and arrange 
the figments of imagination, and the excursions of fancy ; and he 
found that reason itself was nothing, or nothing to be depended 
on, longer than it acted under the incumbent energy of the living 
God." This seems to imply that the extravagancies of which he 
had been the subject, sprang from a disordered imagination, in 
which I can readily concur; but when he represents himself as led 
into this state by the all-wise providence of God, and that he per- 
mitted him to be dragged through it, in order to qualify him for 
executing the ministerial office, he is evidently carrying the matter 
far beyond what I think Divine revelation warrants. 

One is anxious to know, however, in what way and by what 
means this charm was dissolved ; and he has kindly given us the 
following account of the matter. " It has already been seen that 
he was both harassed in his mind, and perplexed and injured in 
his memory : he needed a two-fold help ; and when they became 
indispensably necessary God sent them. While in this distracted 
state, he went one evening to the prayer meeting ; for he was most 
punctual and conscientious in all the means of grace. One of 
those who engaged in prayer, who knew nothing of his state, was 
led to pray thus : — " Lord, if there be any here, against whom the 
accuser of the brethren hath stood up, succour that soul, and cast 
the accuser down." Immediately Adam thought, " I am the 
person : the accuser of the brethren hath stood up, and is standing 
up against me : Lord, cast him down and deliver me !" It was 
immediately done ; he was enabled to penetrate the wiles of the 
seducer ; and the Divine light and consolation instantly re- 
turned. In this way he got relief from one part of his distress, 
his mental perplexity ; the ravages made on his memory were a 
totally distinct thing, and his succour from that came in the 
following manner. 

One day, Mr. Bennet having desired him to do something, 
which" he had already done but had forgotten, and being 



72 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

questioned on it, answered in his usual way of doubtfulness, but 
rather from a conviction that it was undone ; Mr. B., knowing that 
it was done, said to him in a solemn manner, " Adam, you have 
totally lost your memory*: you are in a very deplorable state, you 
have not a particle of memory remaining." With these words 
Adam seemed to awaken as from a deep trance. " He turned his 
eye inwardly and saw his mind in total confusion ; nothing had 
rule, confusion seemed confounded by confusion : he flew to 
prayer, which was ever his strong-hold : God shone upon his mind 
and gave him a renewed consciousness of his favour !" 

Such is his own account of the matter ; but a sceptical reader 
would naturally ask what connection there was between this flash 
of illumination and the restoration of Adam's powers of memory, 
a difficulty which the narrative does not help us to solve. So far 
from it that it greatly increases it. For, notwithstanding this 
immediate revelation in answer to praijer, and by means of which 
he was made so perfectly happy, he confesses that he never did 
completely recover his memory, from that time. He made a 
variety of experiments upon Blair's poem, entitled The Grave," 
and it was with the utmost difiiculty he could commit to memory 
the first paragraph. Speaking on the subject, he said, I do not: 
recollect that I remained master of a single line ! It seemed that 
either every thing was effaced from my memory, or that memory 
itself was extinct. I took up the book again, and after a few 
efforts, recovered the paragraph, with the addition of a few more 
lines. Went again to work, and, after some time, tried my 
memory again, and found all gone but two or three of the first 
lines! I took up the book again, recovered what I had learned, 
and, as before, added a few more, and was satisfied that I could 
say the whole consecutively without missing a line, or indeed a 
word. Went to my work ; after some hours tried my memory 
again, and found all gone but about double the quantity of the 
beginning to what I had left of the last recollection. Thus I con- 
tinued for some time getting and losing, but recollecting addi- 
tionally more of the commencement, till at last, I could repeat in 
all circumstances, and after any pause, about two hundred lines. 
I then gave it up, and by various exertions, left my memory to 



OF THE ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 73 

acquire its wonted tone and energy by degrees ; but this it never 
did completely." 

In no part of this process do we see any thing supernatural, or 
out of the ordinary course of nature, and consequently are at a 
'oes to know what is intended by " God shining upon his mind, 
erivin^ him a renewed consciousness of his favour," in answer 
to prayer for the recovery of his memory. The Doctor, however^ 
does resolve it into a wise dispensation of Providence ; for had his 
memory been as perfect as it once was, he would no doubt have 
depended much on it in preaching, and less on God, and perhaps 
have neglected the cultivation of his understanding and judgment ! 
whereas, circumstanced as he was, '* the plan of his preaching was 
new and uncommon, it was always interesting, and ever popular ; 
for, by the demonstration of the truth, he commended himself to 
every man's conscience in the sight of God." 



SECTION ' . 

Mr. Clarke quits Ireland, and takes vp his first residence at Kings- 
wood; is from thence removed to Bradford (Wilts) where he 
begins preaching — Syllabus of his Creed, a. D. 1782-3. 

Adam Clarke had now completely cast his lot among the 
Methodists ; and though he had frequently addressed small 
societies in dilferent parts of the country, he had never taken a text 
for that purpose; for against that, he seems to have had conscien- 
tious scruples, until he got a regular call to the ministry. He 
very properly remarks that, " in the primitive churches there were 
"exhorters, as well as preachers, teachers, apostles, and evangelists ; 
and their gift was not less necessary for the edification of the 
church than those of the others." The Doctor adds, and the 
remark is perfectly just, all gifts seem now to be absorbed m 
one ; and a man must be either a preacher or nothing." These 
observations are worthy to be recorded ; they manifest an inde- 
pendent mind, accustomed to think for itself and draw its own 

L 



74 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

conclusions, a mind untrammelled by system or party ; and it is 
much to be wished that the same independence of mind had 
prompted him to investigate the nature and constitution, discipline 
and worship, of the primitive churches, and to show how much 
those of our day differ from them in all these respects. But 
unhappily he stopped short at the threshold. 

Soon after young Clarke had taken his departure from Cole- 
raine, as related in a former page, he received a kind invitation 
from Mr. Bredin, who was then on the Londonderry side of the 
circuit, to come and spend a week or two with him ; and having 
obtained the consent of his parents to go, he made preparations for 
a journey, on foot, of upwards of thirty miles. Previous to his 
setting out, he took up his Bible, and at the same moment lifted 
up his heart to God, beseeching to be directed to some portion of 
the Holy Scriptures, which might profitably employ his medita- 
tions on the way. He then opened the book, and the first words 
which met his eye were these : " Ye have not chosen me, but I 
have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring 
forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain : that whatsoever ye 
shall ask the Father in my name, he may give it you," John, xv. 16. 
Christ addressed the words to his apostles, but Mr. Clarke con- 
sidered them equally applicable to his own case, and finding great 
encouragement from them, he went on his way rejoicing. 

Having reached Mr. Bredin's residence, the latter requested him 
to go the following evening and supply his place at a village called 
New Buildings, about five miles beyond Derry. Adam, after some 
hesitation about preaching from a text, consented to go, and, on 
the 19th June, 1782, preached from 1 John, v. 19. The people 
seemed much gratified with his sermon ; and when it was ended, 
gathered around him, and entreated him to preach to them at five 
the following morning, at a place a mile or two distant, before they 
went to work. He complied, had a tolerably good congregation, 
and addressed them from 1 John, iv. 19. During his stay at Derry, 
he preached five times at New Buildings, and gave several ex- 
hortations. From this time he considered that he had a special 
call from God to preach the Gospel, and that the verse, John, xv. 16, 
to which he was directed before he set out for Derry, was the 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



75 



evidence of that call ; he Jelt the words as no man could feel them 
who was not in his circumstances ! 

He had not been long returned from Londonderry before a letter 
came from Mr. Wesley to Mr. Bredin, appointing him for England, 
and instructing him to bring Adam Clarke with him, that he 
might be sent direct to Kingswood school ; and now a sore trial 
awaited the young man. When he broached the thing to his 
parents, they manifested the highest displeasure at the proposition. 
So indignant was his father, that he would neither see nor speak 
to him ; his mother went even further than this, and threatened 
him with the displeasure of Almighty God ! " We have brought 
you up with much care and trouble," said she, " your brother is 
gone — your father cannot last always — you should stay with the 
family, and labour for the support of those who have so long sup- 
ported you, and not go to be a fugitive and vagabond over the 
face of the earth. I believe you to be upright, I know you to be 
godly ; but remember God has said, ' Honour thy father and thy 
mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy 
God giveth thee.' This is the first commandment with promise ; 
and remember that the apostle hath said, ' Whosoever shall keep 
the whole law, and yet offend in one point, is guilty of all.' 
Now, I allow that you are unblameable in your life, but you are 
going to break that solemn law, ' Honour thy father and thy 
' mother ;' and if you do, what will avail all your other righteous- 
ness ?" 

This was truly a most trying situation to be brought into, but 
it is no unusual thing; and it is only what the Saviour often 
warned his disciples to expect. Adam had too much good sense 
to reply to an exasperated parent, unreasonable as her language 
was, and he merely remarked, " I wish to do nothing contrary to 
the will of God ; and in this respect I labour to keep a conscience 
void of offence before God and man." His poor mother was so far 
transported with rage and off her guard, that she thus addressed 
her son : " If you go you shall have a parent's curse and not her 
blessing." 

This was indeed an hour of perplexity, and Adam had no choice 
but of difficulties. He had advanced too far to retreat safely | and 



76 MEMOIRS OP THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRlTirfcs, 

he could not turn back with a clear conscience. To leave his 
parents under such circumstances was heart-rending ; and he knew 
not i^vhat to do. He therefore had recourse to God by prayer, 
and heaven appeared for him. Some business called him to Cole- 
raine for a few days, and to his astonishment, on his return home, 
he found his mother's heart softened and her sentiments entirely 
changed. She now entertained the persuasion that God required 
her to give up her son to his work. She instantly submitted : and 
had^begun to use all her influence with his father, to bring him to 
the same mind, and in this she ultimately succeeded. Their objec- 
tions were silenced ; and though neither of them said, " Go," yet 
both said, " we submit." 

He now prepared to take leave of his friends ; the society in 
Coleraine recommended him, by prayer, to the care of their 
Heavenly Father, and put a trifle of money in his purse, with 
which he set out to join Mr. Bredin at Deny, a journey of thirty 
miles, all of which he had to travel on foot ; and, on joining him, 
found he had agreed for their passage in a Liverpool trader, which 
was expected to sail the first fair wind. 

Adam congratulated himself in thinking he was to have Mr. 
Bredin for his companion and fellow-traveller, for he himself was 
young and inexperienced. But now began a series of disappoint- 
ments and distresses, which might well put his courage and confi- 
dence to the test. Just aS they were about to sail, a letter was 
received from Mr. Wesley, countermanding Mr. Bredin's appoint- 
ment ; he was to remain in Ireland. There was no time to 
deliberate ; the wind was fair ; the vessel cleared out, and was 
about to fall down to the Lough. Adam provided himself with a 
loaf of bread and about a pound of cheese ; stept aboard quite 
alone; and on Saturday, August 17th, 1782, he, for the first time, 
bade farewell to the land of his nativity. By this step he separated 
himself from all earthly connections and prospects in his own 
country, and went on the authority of what he believed to be a 
Divine call, " not knowing whither he was going," nor what God 
intended for him. 

The captain of the sloop was one Cunningham, a Scotchman 
decent, orderly, and respectable. With him Mr. Clarke conversed 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



77 



frequently during the passage to Liverpool, on religious topics, and 
the captain seemed pleased with it. The latter had got FlaveTs 
Works on board, and read them diligently on the Lord's day ; but 
poor Adam was sea- sick, and obliged to keep his bed. The 
American war was then in progress ; and when they approached 
Liverpool, they found a hot press going forward on the Mersey. 
The Tender stationed there on the impress service, fired a couple 
of guns to make the captain bring to. The sails were hauled down 
in a moment, and the tender lowered her boat over her side ; the 
sloop was presently boarded by an officer and six men. The 
following is Dr. Clarke's own account of what followed : — " There 
were on board two young men, besides Adam Clarke, one a sailor 
and the other a hatter, both steerage passengers, and Captain 
Cunningham advised them all to go and hide themselves wherever 
they could, in the most secret parts of the vessel. The two young 
men accordingly hid themselves. I said to myself ' shall such a 
man as I flee ? I will not. I am in the Lord's hands ; if he per- 
mit me to be sent on boards a man-of-war, doubtless he has some- 
thing for me to do there.' I therefore quietly sat down on a locker 
in the cabin ; but my heart prayed to the God of heaven. By and 
bye the noise on deck told me that the gang were come on board. 
Immediately I heard a hoarse voice of unholy authority, calling 
out, ' All you who are below come up on deck.' I immediately 
walked up the hatch-way, stepped across the quarter-deck, and 
leaned myself against the gun-wale. The officer himself went 
down and searched, and found the hatter, but did not find the 
sailor. While this officer and the captain were in conversation 
about the hatter, who maintained that he was an apprentice to a 

Mr. in Livei^ool, one of the gang came up to me, and said 

to one of our sailors, * Who have you got here ? 0, he's a — 
priest, I'll warrant,' said the fellow ; adding, ' we pres't a priest 
yesterday, but I think we'll not take this one !' By this time the 
lieutenant, having ordered the poor hatter on board the Tender's 
boat, came up to me, stood for some seconds eyeing me from head 
to foot; he then stepped forward, took me by the right hand, 
fingered and thumbed it to find whether I had been brought up to 
the sea or hard labour ; then^ with authoritative insolence, shook it 



78 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

from him with a muffled execration, ' D — you, you'll not do. 
They then returned to their boat, and went off with the poor 
hatter." 

A reflection upon this occurrence never failed through life to 
call up all the patriotism, and loyalty, and love of liberty, and 
hatred of slavery in the breast of Dr. Clarke ; he could not think 
upon it with patience. " What Briton's bosom," he would say, 
" does not burn agamst this infringement of British liberty ? This 
unconstitutional attack on the liberty of a free-bom subject of the 
Sovereign of the British isles ^ While the impress service is tole- 
rated, in vain do we boast of our constitution. It is an outrageous 
attack upon its vitality, ten thousand times more than any suspen- 
sion of the Habeas Corpus Act : Let Britons know, that it is neither 
any part of our constitution, nor any law of the land, whatever 
some venal lawyers have said, in order to make it constructively 
such. Nothing can be a reason for it, but that which justifies a 
levee-en-masse of the inhabitants of the nation. It is intolerable to 
hear those plead for it, who are not exposed to so great a 
calamity." 

At Liverpool, Captain Cunningham took young Clarke to his 
own house, where he was hospitably entertained during his stay in 
that town, and when the latter enquired for his bill, was told by Mrs. 
Cunningham that he owed nothing there ; on the contrary, that the 
family were deeply in his debt ; that he had been a blessing to their 
house, and were he to stay longer, he would have no charges. 
They hoped to hear from him when he got to Kingswood ! 
Though this free lodging suited his pocket, it was little accordant 
with his disposition ; for all through life he admired and enforced 
the words of the blessed Redeemer, " It is more blessed to give 
than to receive." He departed, earnestly supplicating the blessings 
of heaven on that family. 

It had been his intention to travel on foot from Liverpool to 
Bristol, a distance of near two hundred miles, but from this he was 
dissuaded, and he took an outside place in what was called "the 
Fly," to Birmingham — one of the " tarda volentia plau^tra" — a 
vehicle so loaded within and without as to be little inferior in size 
to a stage waggon, and not much superior to one in speed. They 



/ 

OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



79 



left Liverpool at seven o'clock in the evening, and did not arrive in 
Birmingham before the following night — that is, the Fly went 
ninety-five miles in twenty-four hours, almost four miles an hour ! 
The coaches now run it in about ten ! 

We have an amusing account of young Clarke's companions on 
his way to Birmingham. From reproving the sin of swearing in a 
young and giddy person, the fact was elicited that Adam was a 
Methodist; and now all the passengers both inside and out were 
ready to sport their wit at his expence. However, when they as- 
sembled round the dinner table at Litchfield, the inside passengers 
insisted on defraying his expence ; and to his surprise and gratifi- 
cation, it turned out that the young gentleman could converse with 
him out of Virgil and Horace, nor was he wholly unacquainted 
with his Bible. In the course of conversation, Mr. Clarke started 
a proposition concerning the heathen, viz. that they were not des- 
titute of a knowledge of that confidence in the Divine favour and 
protection, which every true fearer of God has, and quoted the 
following lines of Horace, in proof of it. 

** Integer vitae scelerisque purus 
Non eget Mauris jaculis, neque arcu, 
Nec venenatis gravida sagittis 

Fusee, pharetra." — Hor., lib. I. Od. 22. 

** The man that knows not guilty fear, 
Nor wants the bow, nor pointed spear ; 
Nor needs, while innocent of heart. 
The quiver teeming with the poison'd dart." — Francis. 

" True," said the gentleman, " but if we take Horace for autho- 
rity in one point, we may as well do it in another : and in some of 
your received principles you will find him against you : witness 
another ode." — 

" Nunc estbibendum, nunt pede libero 
Pulsanda tellus." — Ibid. 37. 

*' Now let the bowl with wine be crown'd 
Now lighter dance the mazy round." 



Young <^larke acknowledged the propriety of his opponent's re- 



80 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

mark, and ever after was wont to say, " we should be cautious how 
we appeal to heathens, however eminent, in behalf of morality, 
because 'tis certain that much may be collected from them on the 
other side. In like manner we should take heed how we quote the 
Fathers in proof of the doctrines of the gospel, because he who 
knows them best, knows, that on many of those subjects, they blow 
hot and cold.'' 

At Birmingham, Mr. Clarke fell in with Mr. Joseph Brettel, 
the brother of John, formerly mentioned. He had a letter of recom- 
mendation to him from a Mr. Ray, of Liverpool ; and by Mr. and 
Mrs. Brettel he was affectionately received and treated with kind- 
ness. As there would be no coach to Bristol for two days, they 
took him to their house to eat and sleep. He accompanied his 
kind host to a public prayer-meeting at which Adam gave an ex- 
hortation which was well received ; and while at Birmingham, he 
had an opportunity of hearing Old Parson Greenwood preach from 
the words of Paul, " I am in a strait between two." In the course 
of the sermon, he took occasion to remark that it had generally 
been the case in every age that the people of God had been often 
in straits and difficulties, of which he gave instances in the case of 
Lot in Sodom ; Jacob in the house of Laban, and when he met 
Esau his brother, Moses in Egypt, &c. — and, adds Dr. Clarke, 
had he known the circumstances and spirit of his young strange 
hearer, he might have added him to the number. 

During their intercourse at Birmingham, Mr. Brettel, who would 
seem to have had a pretty correct notion of the Kingswood semi- 
nary, asked Mr. Clarke what he proposed to himself by going 
thither ? The latter, who had been led to consider it in the light 
of a University, but much better conducted than those of Oxford 
and Cambridge, promptly replied, that he hoped to increase his 
learning and piety. Mr. B. told him he wished he might not be 
disappointed, but for his part he was inclined to question whether 
he would there meet with any thing he expected ! This perfectly 
confounded the young man, who referred him to some recent num- 
bers of their Magazine, in which such an account was given of this 
seminary as had raised his expectations to the highest pitch. Mr. 
Brettel, who appears from tlie whole narrative to have been a 



CF THE REV, ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F A. S. 



81 



judiciouij, soberminded man contented himself with remarking— 
" I only msh Ux put you on your guard against suffering pain and 
discouragement, should you be disappointed. Some of us know 
the place well ; and know that you will not meet in it what you 
have been led to expect." 

We have here one instance, among many that might be adduced, 
of the unhappy results of that system of pvjffing which has found 
its way into some of our religious magazines; Every thing per- 
taining to them and their party can only be spoken of in the super- 
lative degree. Their ministers are little inferior to angels, and 
their missionary undertakings crowned with the completest success, 
insomuch that, should we credit all they publish in the columns of 
those journals, our great surprise must be that, by this time, there 
remains any part of the world to be evangelized ! Mr. Brettel's 
admonition to Adam Clarke not to be too sanguine in his expecta- 
tions from Kingswood college was kind and benevolent ; it pre- 
pared him gradually for the suffering he had to endure at that 
place of torment, as the sequel will show. Callous and unfeeling 
must be the heart that can peruse the following detail without 
emotions of sympathy, and especially when he calls to mind that 
these things happened to Dr. Adam Clarke, during liis uovitis^te 
in Methodism. 

As the coach for Bristol w^as to go off at tliree o clock in the 
morning, it was judged best that Mr. Clarke should sleep at the 
inn. Having paid his fare outside the coach to Bristol, and six- 
pence for his bed, he found the whole contents of his purse to be 
reduced to one shilling and nine pence. On his journey from Bir- 
mingham to Bristol, a distance of more than one hundred miles he 
subsisted on a penny loaf and a half penny worth of apples ! The 
day had been stormy, and he had been often wet to the skin ; 
when he reached the Lamb inn, in Broadmead, Bristol, he felt 
greatly exhausted and fatigued. He was shown to the kitchen, 
where there happened to be a good fire, and he warmed himself. 
He asked for a piece of bread and cheese, and a drink of water. 
" Water, water" ! said one of the servants, " had you not better 
have a pint of beer ? " " No : 1 prefer a drink of water," said he, 
and it was brought. The charge was sixpence for his supper, six- 

M 



I 



82 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

pence for his bed, and sixpence to the chambermaid, for taking 
care of his box ; so that his bank stock was thus reduced to three 
half pence, on his setting out for Kingswood, on the following 
morning, August 25th. 

Quitting the inn at an early hour, he walked out to Kingswood, 
which he reached about seven o'clock, when preaching in the 
chapel was about to commence. He entered with the crowd, 
and heard the preacher discourse from "Woman, why weepest 
thou ? Whom seekest thou ? " Making a personal application of 
the text to his own case, he says, it proved a word in season, for 
he now began to be very heavy and jaded in mind, having a pre- 
sage of some approaching distress. When service was over, young 
Clarke was introduced to Mr. Simpson, the head master, to whom 
he delivered Mr. Wesley's letter. Mr. S. appeared surprised, de- 
clared " he had heard nothing of it, and that they had no room in 
the school for any one ; that Mr. Wesley was now in Cornwall, but 
was expected in a fortnight," and added, " you must go back to 
Bristol, and lodge there till he comes." This was appalling tidings ! 
Adam had travelled several hundred miles by sea and land in quest 
of a chimerical Utopia, and Garden of Paradise ; and now, all his 
hopes and expectations were blasted. With a heart full of distress, 
Adam ventured to say, " Sir, I cannot go back to Bristol ; I have 
expended all my money and have nothing to subsist on." Mr. 
Simpson said, " why should you come to Kingswood ? It is only 
for preachers children, or for such preachers as cannot read their 
Bible ; and it appears from this information, that you have already 
been at a classical school, where you have read both Latin and 
Greek authors." Adam rejoined, I am come to improve myself 
in various ways by the advantages which I understand Kingswood 
could afford." Mr. S. replied that it was not necessary ; and that 
if I were already a preacher, I had better go out into the work at 
large, for that there was no room for me in the school, and not one 
spare bed in the house." Poor Clarke said to himself. 



Hei mihi ! quanta de spe decidi I 
" Alas for me ! — from what elevated hopes have I fallen ! " 
The rest must be given in his own words. — 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



83 



"At last it was agreed, that there was a spare room at the end of 
the chapel where I might lodge till Mr. Wesley should come home 
from Cornwall ; but that I must stay in that room and not come into 
the house. I was accordingly shown to the place, and was told, 
one of the maids should bring me my daily food at the stated 
times. As soon as I was left alone, I kneeled down and poured 
out my soul to God with strong crying and tears. I was a stranger 
in a strange land, and alas ! among strange people, utterly friendless 
and pennyless. I felt also that I was not at liberty, except to run 
away ; this I believe would have been grateful to the unfeeling 
people into whose hands I had fallen. But I soon found why I was 
thus cooped up in my prison house, [and now follows the explana- 
tion] Mr. Simpson that day took an opportunity to tell me that his 
wife suspected I might have the itch, as many persons coming 
from my country had ; [this was excellent from Scotch people, for 
such they both were;] and that they could not let me mingle 
with the family. I immediately tore open my waistcoat and shirt, 
and shewed him a skin as white and clean as ever came across the 
Tweed ; but all to no purpose." " It might be cleaving some where 
to me, and they could not be satisfied till I had rubbed myself, 
from head to foot, with a box of Jackson's itch ointment, which 
should be procured for me next day." 

" It was only my strong hold of God that kept me from distrac- 
tion. But to whom could I make my complaint ? Earthly refuge 
I had none. It is utterly impossible for me to describe the feelings, 
I may justly say the agony, of my mind. I surveyed my appartment ; 
there was a wretched old bureau wainscot bedstead, not worth ten 
shillings, and a flock-bed with suitable bed-clothes, worth not 
much more : but the worst was, they were very scanty, and the 
weather was cold and wet. There was one rush bottomed chair in 
the place ; and besides these neither carpet on the floor, nor at the 
bed side, nor any other kind of furniture. There was no book, not 
even a Bible in the place ; and my own box, with my clothes and 
a few books, were left at Bristol ; and I had not even a change of 
linen. Of this I informed them, and begged them to let the man 
(as I found he went with a horse and small cart three times a week) 



MEMOIRS OF THE LITE, MINISTRY, AS^b WRITIPifGS, 



bring out my box to me. To this request, oilen and earnestly re- 
peated, I got no definite answer ; but no box was brought. 

The odoriferous unguent was brought, certainly, and pooi- Ckrke 
wais compelled to anoint himself before a large fire, the first and 
last which he saw while he remained there, and which they had 

ordered to be lighted for tho purpose ^' The woman 

that brought my bread a?id milk, for breakfast, for dinner, and for 
supper, for generally I had nothing else, and not enough of that, 
I asked to let me have a pair of clean sheets ; but in vain : no 
clean sheets of any kind were afforded me. I was left to make my 
own bed, sweep my own room, and empty my own basin &c. &c. 
as I pleased. For more than three weeks no soul performed any 
kind act for me. And as they did not give orders to the man to 
bring out my box, I Was left without a change of any kind till the 
Thursday of the second week, when I asked permission to go out 
of my pi'ison-house to Bristol for my box : which being granted, 
I proceeded thither and carried my box on my head, a distance of 
more than four miles, without assistance of any kind." Under 
these circumstances it was no loss that his wardrobe was not more 
extensive. Pie begged and entreated that he might be indulged 
with a little fire, the season being unnaturally cold, both day and 
night ; but that was denied him, although coals were raised within 
a few roods of the house and very cheap : but had it been other- 
wise, they were not at tJieir expence, being paid for out of the 
public collections. " One day, having seen Mr. Simpson walking 
in the garden, I Went to him and told him I was starving with 
cold, and shewed him my bloodless fingers. He took me to the 
hall, shewed me a cord which was suspended from the roof, and to 
the end of which was afiixed a cross stick : he told me to jump up 
and catch hold 0(' the stick and swing by my hands, and that 
would help to restoie the circulation. I did so : and had been at 
the exercise only a few minutes, when Mrs. S. came and drove 
both him and myself away, under pretence that we should dirty the 
floor ! From this woman I received no kindness, a more unfeeling 
Woniaii I never iiai^V. She was probably very cleVer> all Stood in 
awe of her, for my <!)Wn part, I feared her more than I feai^d Satan 
himself. When nearly crippled with cold, and I had stolen into 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



85 



the kitchen to warm myself for a few moments, if I heard her voice 
in the hall, I have run as a man would that was pursued in the 
jungles by a Bengal tiger. 

" This woman was equally saving of the candles as of the coals : 
if my candle was not extinguished by nine o'clock, I Was called 
to account for it. My bed not being comfortable, I did not like to 
lie much in it, and therefore kept out of it as late, and rose from 
it as early as possible. To prevent Mrs. S. from seeing the re- 
flection of the light through my window, I was accustomed to set 
my candle on the floor, behind my bureau bed, take off* my coat 
and hang it over the chair-back, bring that close on the other 
angle, and then sit down squat on the floor and read ! To these 
miserable expedients was I driven in order to avoid my bed, and 
spend my time in the best manner I could for the cultivation of my 
mind, and to escape the prying eye of this woman, who seemed 
never to be in her element but when she was driving every thing 
before her." 

There Was a garden appertaining to the school, the fine quickset 
hedges of which were all overgrown. Adam asked permission to 
work in the garden and it was granted. He procured a pair of 
dubbing shears, with which he trimmed the hedges and reduced 
the whole to order and symmetry ; and he acquitted himself so 
well that his taste and industry were both applauded. He occa- 
sionally dug and dressed plots in the ground. This was a source 
of agreeable exercise and conduced to his better health* There 
v/as a pond of rain water in the garden, in which he occasionally 
bathed, though as he says he had to contend with frogs, askes, and 
vermin of various kinds ! The religious exercises at the chapel> 
j)reaching and band-meeting, were often sources of spiritual refresh- 
ment to him and afforded him songs in the house of his pilgrimage* 

Dr. Clarke has furnished us with the following account of the 
family at Kingswood during the period he was fated to be connected 
with it. Mr* Thomas Simpson, M. A. was head master. Mrs. 
Simpson, housekeeper. Miss Simpson, assistant* The Rev* Corne- 
lius Bayley, (afterwards Dr. Bayley, of Manchester) was English 
Teacher, with a salary of £12 per annum and his board. Mi** 
Vincent de Boudry was occasional French teacher : and Mr. C, R, 



MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



Bond, was a sort of half boarder, and assistant English Teacher 
Mr. Simpson was a man of learning and piety ; much of a gentle- 
man, but too easy for his situation. Mr. Bayley was a man of the 
strictest morals and exemplary piety. He published a very good 
Hebrew Grammar while connected with the Kingswood school, and 
it is surely no light attestation of its value that Dr. Clarke owned 
himself so much benefited by it that if he had not got it, he never 
should have turned his mind to Hebrew learning, and certainly 
never have written his Commentary on the Old Testament. The 
school consisted of the sons of itinerant preachers and parlour 
boarders. As a religious seminary and under the direction of the 
great Mr. J. Wesley, the school had a high reputation, among 
religious people all over Europe, and the American continent. 
Independently of several young gentlemen, the sons of opulent 
Methodists of this country, there were then in it several from the 
West Indies, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The scholars were 
none of them remarkable for piety or learning. The young gentle- 
men that were introduced had spoiled the discipline of the school ; 
very few of its rules or regulations were observed, and it in no 
respect answered the end of its institution. Mr. Wesley himself 
was quite convinced of this fact ; and at the conference held at 
Bristol, August, 1783, he proposed as a query, " can any improve- 
ment be made in Kingswood school ? " He then pointed out its 
numerous imperfections and closed with saying : " It must be 
mended or ended, for no school is better than the present school ! " 

Dr. Clarke fully agreed with this censure : it was," says he, 
" the worst school I had ever seen, though the teachers were men 
of adequate learning. The school was perfectly disorganised, and 
in several respects each did what was right in his own eyes : there 
was no efficient plan pursued ; they (the pupils) mocked at 
religion, and trampled under foot all the laws. The little children 
of the preachers suffered great indignities ; and it is to be feared, 
the treatment they received there gave many of them a rooted 
enmity against piety and religion for life. The parlour boarders 
had every kind of respect paid to them, and the others were 
shamefully neglected. Had this most gross mismanagement been 
known to the Methodist preachers, they would have suffered their 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., V. A. S. 



87 



sons to die in ignorance, rather than have sent them to a place 
where there was scarcely any care taken either of their bodies or 
souls." In short, he found the hints which were thrown out by 
Mr. Brettel and the Birmingham friends, more than realized. 

About the beginning of September, Mr. Wesley arrived at 
Bristol, and Mr. Simpson lost no time in obtaining an interview, 
when he told his own tale in relation to Adam Clarke ; that they 
had not room for him : that it was a pity he should not be out in the 
g-eneral work, &c. &c. ; and Adam was informed that Mr. Wesley 
desired to see him. This is what he had long wished, and that 
privilege he obtained for the first time, on the 6th of September. 
A friend in Bristol conveyed him to Mr. Wesley's study, off the 
great lobby of the rooms over the chapel in Broadmead. On being 
introduced, Mr. Wesley took him kindly by the hand and enquired 
how long it was since he had left Ireland ? The conversation was 
short He said, " Well, brother Clarke, do you wish to devote 
yourself entirely to the work of God ?" Adam answered, " Sir, I 
wish to do and be what God pleases He then said, " We want a 
preacher for Bradford (Wilts) ; hold yourself in readiness to go 
thither : I am going into the country and will let you know when 
you shall go." Having said this, he turned to young Clarke, laid 
his hands upon his head, and by a short, fervent, and impressive 
prayer, commended him to the especial care and benediction of the 
God of all grace, that he would bless and preserve him, and grant 
him success in the work to which he was now formally designated. 
" I departed," says Dr. Clarke, " having now received, in addition 
to my appointment from God to preach the Gospel, the only 
authority I could have from man, in that line in which I was to 
exercise the ministry of the Divine word." 

In the evening of the same day, Adam heard Mr. Wesley preach 
from Zech. iv. 6, Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, 
saith the Lord of hosts." The substance of the sermon was a 
history of Methodism from its commencement in Oxford, occasioned 
by himself and his brother Charles, and a few other young men set- 
ting apart a portion of their time to read the Greek Testament, 
carefully noting down the doctrines and precepts of the Gospel, 
and to pray for inward and outward holiness^&;,c. With and by 



80 MEMOIRS OF TBE UPE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

these, God had condescended to perform a work, the greatest thai 
had been wrought in any nation since the days of the apostles. 
That the instruments which he employed were, humanly speaking, 
not at all calculated to produce such a glorious effect ; that they 
had no might as to extraordinary learning, philosophy, or rhetori- 
cal abilities ; they had no power either ecclesiastical or civil ; they 
could neither command attention, nor punish the breach of order ; 
and yet by these means was the extraordinary work wrought, and 
in such a manner too, as to demonstrate that it was " neither by 
might nor by power ; it was by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts." 

Two days afterwards, young Clarke first saw Mr. Charles Wesley, 
which was to him a most gratifying sight, considering, as he did, 
the two brothers to be the very highest characters on the face of 
the earth, and as the most favoured instruments which God had 
employed since the days of the apostles to revive and spread 
genuine Christianity in the earth ; a pardonable error when we 
consider his youth and circumscribed knowledge of the world. 

.. " Fool that I was, 

To think Imperial Rome, like this our Mantua." 

Before we take a final leave of Kingswood school, there are a 
few more choice things on record from the Doctor's own pen, 
which I may not omit in this place. When Adam had received 
orders from Mr. Wesley to hold himself in readiness to go into a 
circuit, he was brought out of his prison house, and had a bed 
assigned him in the large room with the rest of the boys, and had 
permission to dine with the family. There was then no question 
about his leprosy, or any thing else, whether he had ever been 
infected with it, or was cured of it ; but Mrs. Simpson's authority, 
albeit, was not yet at an end. It was soon noticed at table that 
Mr. Clarke drank no person's health. He had long regarded this 
as a foolish custom, and set his face against it. At the Kingswood 
school table, every person when he drank must run the following 
gauntlet : " Mr. Simpson, Mrs. Simpson, Miss Simpson, Mr. 
Bayley, De Baudry, all the foreign gentlemen, all the parlour 
bparders, down one side of the long table and up the otjier, one 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 89 

by one, and all the visitors that might happen to be there : after 
which it was lawful for him to drink his glass of befer. Mrs. 
Simpson took umbrage at Mr. Clarke's want of courtesy, and 
insisted upon his going through this routine, and drinking all 
healths, which he peremptorily refused, telling her he had a 
Scruple of conscience, and could not submit to it till better 
informed, and hoped she would not insist on it. She replied, 
* You certainly shall ; you shall not drink at table unless you 
drink the healths of the company as others do. Mr. Wesley 
drinks healths ; Mr. Fletcher does the same ; but you will not do it, 
because you, of course, have more wisdom and piety than ihei/ 
have.' " There was no answering this argument ; poor Adam knew 
that he was in Rome, and that it would be absurd in him to 
attempt to contend with the Pope ! The consequence was that he 
never had a drop of fluid with his meat during the rest of his stay 
at that place ; which was a sore trial to him, having never had Bttt 
easy deglutition, and was obliged to sip with his food to get ft 
swallowed. " I had now no help," says he, ''^ but to take very 
small bits and eat little ; and then go out to the vile straining stone 
behind the kitchen, for some of the half putrid pit water, and thus 
tjerriiiftaite my unsatisfactory meal." 

It was a happy circumstance that he was not destined to con- 
tinue long at Kings wood to pursue his studies, agreeable to his 
intentions when he first came. On the 26th of September h^e 
received his final instructions to set off on his circuit. On tbe 
morning of that day he left it, walked to Hanham, and thence to 
Bath, where he heard Mr. Wesley preach ; and from Bath he" 
walked to Bradford, where he again heard him preach in the 
evening. Next day he set out on his circuit, of which Troulindg'^ 
was the first place. The following are his reflections on quittfftg 
the house of bondage : " Though burdened with a sense of nry 
great unfitness for the work into which I was going-,* yet' I li^ft" 
Kingswood without a sigh or a groan. It had been to me a pia^e 
of unworthy treatment, not to say torment ; but this had lasted only 
one month and two days, thirty-one days too much, if God hud no f 
been pleased to order it otherwise. But the impressions made 
upon my mind by the bad usage I received there, have nev^r Hfeeii 

N 



90 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

erased : a sight of the place has ever filled me with distressing sen- 
sations ; and the bare recollection of the name never fails to bring 
with it associations both unpleasant and painful. Those who were 
instruments to my tribulation are gone to another tribunal ; and 
against them I never made any complaint." 

The Simpsons did not continue to conduct the Kingswood 
school more than a year after this time ; but removed to Keynsham, 
between Bristol and Bath, where they set up a classical school, 
which was managed with considerable credit, and continued by a 
son after the father's death. Their treatment of Mr. Clarke was 
unquestionably very disgraceful, and well calculated to fill his 
mind with disgust against Methodism at the very outset of his 
career. It does not appear that Mr. "Wesley was ever made 
acquainted with these things. 

As we are now brought to that important period when Adam 
Clarke entered upon the ministry of the word, and was called forth 
to " labour in the word and doctrine," it may not be amiss to 
pause and introduce the Articles of his Creed, yn\h which he has 
kindly favoured us. It would appear, from his own account of the 
matter, that he then settled it by a thorough reading of the New 
Testament, and so satisfactorily that he never afterwards had 
occasion to change one article of it. 

I. That there is but one uncreated, unoriginated, infinite, and 
eternal Being, the creator, preserver, and governor of all things. 

II. There is in this essence a plurality of what we commonly 
call Persons, not separately subsisting, but essentially belonging 
to the Deity or Godhead, which persons eire generally termed. 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; or, God, the Logos (Word), and 
the Holy Spirit, which are commonly designated the Trinity ; 
which term, though not found in the Scriptures, seems properly 
enough applied ; as we repeatedly read of these three, and never 
of more persons in the Godhead. 

III. The sacred Scriptures, or Holy Books, which constitute 
the Old and New Testaments, contain a full revelation of the will 
of God, in reference to man ; and are alone sufficient for every 
thing relative to the faith and practice of a Christian, and were 
given by inspiration of God. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 91 

IV. Man -was created in righteousness and true holiness, without 
any moral imperfection, or any kind of propensity to sin ; but free 
to stand or fall, according to the use of the powers and faculties he 
received from his Creator. 

V. He fell from this state, became morally corrupt in his nature, 
and transmitted his moral defilement to all his posterity. 

VI. To counteract the evil principle in the heart of man, and 
bring him into a salvable state, God, from his infinite love, formed 
the purpose of redeeming him from his lost state, by the incarna- 
tion, in the fullness of time, of Jesus Christ ; and, in the interim, 
sent his Holy Spirit to enlighten, strive with, and convince, men of 
sin, righteousness, and judgment. 

VII. In due time this Divine Person, called the Logos, Word, 
Saviour, &c. &c., did become incarnate, sojourned among men, 
teaching the purest truth, and working the most stupendous and 
beneficent miracles. 

VIII. The Lord Jesus Christ is really and properly God; was 
foretold as such by the prophets, described as such by the evan- 
gelists and apostles ; and proved to be such by his miracles ; and 
has assigned to him, by the inspired writers in general, every 
attribute essential to the Deity, being one with Him who is called 
God, Jehovah, Lord, &c. &c. 

IX. He is also a perfect Man, m consequence of his incarnation ; 
and in that man, or manhood, dwelt all the fullness of the God- 
head bodily : so that his nature is twofold — Divine and Human, 
or " God manifested in the flesh." 

X. His Human Nature was begotten of the blessed Virgin 
Mary, through the creative energy of the Holy Ghost : but his 
Divine Nature, because God, infinite and eternal, is uncreated, 
underived, and unbegotten ; and which, were it otherwise, he 
could not be God in any proper sense of the word : but he is most 
explicitly declared to be God, in the Holy Scriptures, and, there- 
fore, the doctrine of the Eternal Sonship, must necessarily be false. 

XI. As HE took upon him the nature of man and died in that 
nature ; therefore, he died for the ivhole human race, without re- 
spect of persons : equally for all and every man. 



9^ MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, ANI> WRITINGS, 

XII. On the third day after his crucifixion, and burial, he rose 
fiom the dead : and after shewing Himself many days to His dis- 
ciples and others. He ascended into heaven, -where, as God manifest 
in the flesh, He is, and shall continue to be, the mediator of the 
human race, till the consummation of all things. 

Xni. There is no salvation, but through Him ; and throughout 
the Scriptures his passion and death are considered a sacrificial : 
pardon of sin and final salvation, being obtained by the alone shed- 
ding of His blood. 

XIV. No human bemg, since the fall, either has or can have 
merit or worthiness of, or by, himself, and therefore has nothing 
to claim from God, but in the way of His mercy through Christ : 
tliei-efore, pardon and every other blessing promised in the Gospel, 
have been purchased by His sacrificial death ; and are given 
to men, not on the account of any thing they have done or suffered : 
or can do or suffer ; but for His sake, or through His meritorious 
passion and death, alone. 

XV. These blessings are received by faith ; because they are 
not of works nor of suffering. 

XVI. The power to believe, or grace of faith, is the free gift of 
God, without which no man can believe : but the act of faith, or 
actually believing, is the act of the soul under that power; this 
power is withheld from no man ; but like all the other gifts of God, 
it may be slighted, not used, or misused, in consequence of which 
is that declaration, " He that believeth shall be saved ; but he that 
believeth not shall be damned." 

XVII. Justification, or the pardon of sin, is an instantaneous 
act of God's mercy in behalf of a penitent sinner, trusting only in 
the merits of Jesus Christ : and this act is absolute in reference to 
all past sin, all being forgiven where any is forgiven ; Gradual 
pardon, or progressive justification, being unscriptural and absurd. 

XVIII. The souls of all believers may be purified from all sin 
in this life ; and a man may live under the continual influence of 
the grace of Christ, so as not to sin against God. All sinful tem- 
pers and evil propensities being destroyed, and his heart constantly 
filled with pure love both to God and man ; and £is love is tJie 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLAFIKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



93 



principle of obedience, he who loves God with all his heart, soul, 
mind and strength, and his neighbour as himself, is incapable of 
doing wrong to either. 

XIX. Unless a believer live and walk in the spirit of obedience, 
he will fall from the grace of God, and forfeit all his Christian pri- 
vileges and rights ; and although he may be restored to the favor 
and image of his Maker from which he has fallen, yet it is possible 
that he may continue under the influence of this fall, and perish 
everlastingly. 

XX. The whole period of human life is a state of /?roWww, in 
every point of which a sinner may repent, and turn to God : and 
in every point of it a believer may give way to sin, and fall from 
grace : and this possibility of rising or falling is essential to a state 
of trial or probation. 

XXI. All the promises and threatenings of the Sacred Writings, 
as they regard man in reference to his being here and hereafter, 
are conditional ; and it is on this ground alone that the Holy Scrip- 
tures can be consistently interpreted or rightly understood. 

XXII. Man is a free agent, never being impelled by any neces- 
sitating influence, either to do good or evil ; but has the continual 
power to choose the life or the death that are set before him ; on 
which ground he is an accountable being, and answerable for his 
own actions ; and on this ground also he is alone capable of being 
rewarded or punished. 

XXIII. The free will of man is a necessary constituent of his 
rational soul ; without which he must be a mere machine, either 
the sport of blind chance, or the mere patient of an irresistible ne- 
cessity ; and consequently, not accountable for any acts which were 
predetermined, and to which he was irresistibly compelled. 

XXIV. Every human being has this freedom of ivill with a suffi- 
ciency of light and power to direct its operations ; but this pow- 
erful light is not inherent in any man's nature, but is gracioTisly be- 
stowed by Him who is " the true light which lighteneth every man 
that cometh into the world." 

XXV. Jesus Christ has made by his own offering upon the 
cross, a sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and atonement for the sins of 
tiie whole world ; and his gracious Sphit strives with, and enlightens 



94> MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE> MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

all men, thus putting them in a salvable state ; therefore, every 
human soul may be saved if it be not his own fault. 

XXVI. Jesus Christ has instituted, and commanded to be perpe- 
tuated in His Church, two sacraments only : 1. Baptism, sprink- 
ling, washing with, or immersion in water, in the name of the Holy 
and ever-blessed Trinity, as a sign of the cleansing or regenerating 
influence of the Holy Spirit, by which influence a death unto sin, 
and a new birth unto righteousness are produced : and 2. The 
Eucharist, or Lord's Supper, as commemorating the sacrificial 
death of Christ. And he instituted the first to be once only admi- 
nistered to the same person, for the above purpose, and as a rite of 
initiation into the visible Church ; and the second, that by its fre- 
quent administration all believers may be kept in mind of the foun- 
dation on which their salvation is built, and receive grace to enable 
them to adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour in all things. 

XXVII. The soul is immaterial and immortal, and can subsist 
independently of the body. 

XXVIII. There will be a general resurrection of the dead, both 
of the just and unjust ; when the souls of both shall be reunited to 
their respective bodies ; both of which will be immortal and live 
eternally. 

XXIX. There will be a general judgment : after which all shall 
be punished or rewarded, according to the deeds done in the body ; 
and the wicked shall be sent to hell, and the righteous taken to 
heaven. 

XXX. These states of rewards and punishments shall have no end, 
for as much as the time of trial or probation shall then be for ever 
terminated ; and the succeeding state must necessarily be fixed and 
unalterable. 

XXXI. The origin of human salvation is found in the infinite 
philanthropy of God ; and, on this principle, the unconditional 
reprobation of any soul is absolutely impossible. 

XXXII. Gbd has no secret will, in reference to man, which is 
contrary to His revealed will, — as this would shew him to be an 
insincere being — professing benevolence to all, while he secretly 
purposed that that benevolence should be extended only to a few : 
a doctrine which appears blasphemous as it respects God, and sub-. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A.S. 95 

versive of all moral good as it regards man, and totally at vari- 
ance with the infinite rectitude of the divine nature. 

Such was Dr. Clarke's creed, the articles of which are given in 
his own words — and he took credit to himself for having pro- 
pounded it in a manner both original and precise, and well calcu- 
lated to convey the sense of each article. It differs in ^few parti- 
culars from what is commonly held by the great body of Armi- 
nians, and in several from what is termed the Calvinistic or ortho- 
dox confession of faith — but these regard, what is usually desig- 
nated " the five points " — to wit, election, particular redemption, 
original sin, efficacious grace, and the final perseverance of the 
saints. A discussion on each of these points, such as the subject 
deserves, would lead to a great extent, and therefore must not be 
here attempted. Besides, a few strictures have already been offered 
on some of them, and others may possibly be touched upon here- 
after ; for it is by the collision of discordant sentiments that truth 
is often elicited. Jn the meantime one cannot but wish that Dr. 
Clarke had referred us to " chapter and verse," as is usually done 
by the compilers of creeds and confessions, in support of each pro- 
position ; we should then have had an opportunity of tracing his 
'opinions to their source. Some of his peculiar views appear to me 
to take their rise from what I should be disposed to call a mistaken 
view of certain texts of Scripture. Thus for instance, in article 
XVIII. he manifestly holds the doctrine of sinless perfection, as a 
state attainable by Christians in this life ; whereas the doctrine of 
the inspired writers runs in this strain ; " If we say that we have 
no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us ; if we say 
that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not 
in us." 1 Joh. i., 8, 10. It is no doubt possible for a man to hold 
the doctrine of sinless perfection, as a thing that may be true of 
certain favourite individuals (concerning whom bethinks too highly) 
without coming under the sentence of condemnation here pro- 
nounced by the Spirit of inspiration, viz. being self-deceived — not 
having the truth in ws—and making God a liar — but it is difficult 
to conceive how any man who considers himself to he free from sm, 
can be a real Christian. Surely the things above specified are 
wholly incompatible with Christianity. " A man may live under 



MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



the continual influence of the grace of Christ," says Dr. Clarke^ 
" so as not to sin against God :" but if so, he can stand in no need 
of cleansing by the blood of J esus Christ ; no need of confession, 
nor of pardon for his daily offences, which the Saviour has taught 
us to pray for as often as we pray for our daily bread. 

Now, if Dr. Clarke were asked upon what text or texts of scrip- 
ture he founded the doctrine of sinless perfection, he would in all 
probability have referred us to such as the following : " who- 
soever abideth in him, sinneth not ; whosoever sinneth hath not 
seen him (Christ) neither known him." 1 Joh. iii. 6. But to this 
a Calvinist, who was well instructed in the principles of his religion 
would answer, that the inspired apostle, in this place, is not treat- 
ing of sin and righteousness in reference to what is called " the 
Moral Law," but solely in relation to Christ's new commandment of 
brotherly love, as in Joh. xiii. 34, 35. It is obviously in reference to 
this law or command, that he says the believer cannot sin ; in other 
words, he cannot hate his brother. See ch. ii. 8, 12. Thus he says, 
ch. V. 1. " Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of 
God ; and every one that loveth him that begat, loveth him also 
that is begotten of him." And so he says, " If a man say, I love 
God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar : for he that loveth not * 
his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he 
hath not seen ? And this commandment have we from him. That 
he who loveth God, love his brother also," ch. iv. 20, 21. There 
is, perhaps, no portion of the apostolic writers, the Apocalypse ex- 
cepted, the meaning of which is so little understood by professors 
of religion as this first epistle of John. It was surely not without 
reason that an inspired prophet exclaimed " I have seen an end 
of all perfection : for thy commandment is exceeding broad" ! 
That any of the fallen race of Adam, even though renewed in the 
spirit of their minds, can enter into the spirituality of the divine 
law as opened up by the great prophet of the Christian church, in 
his sermon on the mount. Mat. v. vi. and vii. and yet think them- 
selves jt?er/V(7/ in respect to its requirements, is what I am incapable 
of comprehending ! 

One of the articles on which Dr. Clarke differed from many of 
his bi^thren, related to the Somhip of Christ, Art \. mk] on this 



or Tllii ULV; ADAM CLARRE, I.L. 1 . A. S. 



97 



point he published, in after lile, an elaborate pamphlet, which was 
replied to by his colleague, Mr. Richard Watson, a man noway 
inferior to the Doctor as a preacher and writer, though, in the 
present instance, I certainly think he had the worst part of the 
argument ; but more of this hereafter, when we come to take a 
review of the learned Doctor's writings. 

" When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war." 

(If dno 
SECTION IV. 

i1i/r. Clarke^ Introduction to the work of the Mimstry — ^Is appointed 
to the Bradford Circuity i^jilTfe^r^ 3* 

At the time Adam Clarke was sent out to labour in the liord's 
vineyard, he was between the ages of twenty and twenty-two, for it 
was never satisfactorily ascertained, whether he was bom in 17G0 or 
1762. But from several things that ^ire upon record from his ow n 
pen, he appears to have been unusually diminutive for his years. 
The generality of young men attain their full stature, by the time 
they get out of their minority, and rarely grow in height after that ; 
whereas, poor Adam was universally spoken of as " the little boy" ! 
This was to him a grievous trial, and the subject of many perplex- 
ing reasonings. He said to himself, " How can I expect that 
men and women — persons of forty, fifty, or sixty years of age, 
should come out to hear a boy preach the gospel ? And is it likely 
if through curiosity they are prompted to attend, they will regard 
what I say ? As to the young, th^y are too gay and giddy to 
attend to divine things ; and if so, where am I to look for the 
probability of my usefulness?" He was, however, enabled to 
conduct himself with so much prudence and discretion, that " no 
man despised his youth" : and the very circumstance which he 
feared would operate to his prejudice turned out eventually to his 
advantage. In every place the attendance was good, and he met 
with uniform kind tpeatmeiit among the people to whom he was 
called to preachi a/jw bORlq ydl Jjobwoio dguodi bun ,aai->ioy 

O 



98 MEItfOlH* Of TH£ LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

The Bradford circuit extended into the three counties of Wilts, 
Somerset and Dorset, and comprised the towns &c. of Bradford, 
Trowbridge, Shaftesbury, Motcomb, Fontmill, f ollard, Winsley, 
Shepton-Mallet, Kingston-Deverell, Bradley, Frome, Corsley, 
Buckland, Coalford, Holcomb, Oakhill, Bruton, West-Pennard, 
Alhampton, Ditcheat, Freshford, Seend, Melksham, Devizes, 
Pottern, Sandy-Lane, Broomham, Wells, Walton, and Road : — 
more than one place for every day in the month ; and the preachers 
rarely stopped two days in the same place, and were almost con- 
stantly on horseback. To one in the situation of young Clarke 
this had its advantages. Just entering upon the work, he could 
not be expected to have much variety of texts or of matter, and 
this change of place afforded him the opportunity of preaching the 
same sermon to different congregations. He, however, read the 
Bible diligently, prayed much, and endeavoured to improve his 
mind, by which means he was enabled by slow degrees, to increase 
his stock, and become better qualified to minister each time of 
his coming round his circuit. 

He had not been long employed in preaching before an incident 
occurred which gave him great encouragement in his work, and 
the particulars are thus related by himself. Between Trowbridge 
and Frome, there is a village called Road, one of the places belong- 
ing to the circuit ; but it was so situated that only two out of the 
four preachers could serve it during the quarter, and when the next 
quarter came, the other two took their places. As Mr. Clarke 
came late into the circuit, it did not come to his turn to visit 
that place before the spring of 1783. The congregations were 
very small, at tliat place, and there were not more than two or 
three that bare the name of Methodists. Previously to his coming, 
a report got into circulation, that a little boy was to preach in 
the Methodist-chapel" at such a time : and all the young men and 
women in the place were determined to hear him. Accordingly 
when it became his turn to officiate, the place was crowded with 
young persons of both sexes, from the age of fourteen to twenty-five ; 
they preoccupied all the seats so that scarcely any elderly persons 
could gain admittance. He preached — the attention was deep and 
Bolemn, and though crowded, the place was still as death. After 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. B., F. A. S 



99 



sermon he gave out an affecting Hymn, of which the following is 
the first stanza — 

*' Vain, delusive world, adieu, 

With all thy creature good ! 
Only Jesus I pursue, 

Who bought me with his blood. 
All thy pleasures I forego, 

And trample on thy wealth and pridt ; 
Only Jesus will I know, 

And Jesus crucified." 

The fine voices of this youthful assembly produced great effect 
in the psalmody. As each verse ended with the two last lines 
above— when the last verse of the hymn was sung, Mr. Clarke 
stopped and thus addressed them: — "My dear young friends! 
You hare joined with me heartily, and I dare say, sincerely, in 
singing this fine hymn. You know in whose presence we have 
been conducting this solemn service ; — the eyes of God, of angels, 
and perhaps of devils, have been upon us. And what have we 
been doing ? we have been promising, in the sight of all these, and 
of each other, that we will renounce a vain delusive world, its 
pleasures, pomp, and pride, and seek our happiness in God alone, 
and expect it through Mm who shed his blood for us. And is not 
this the same to which we have been bound by our baptismal vow. 
Have we not, when we were baptized, promised, either by our- 
selves or sureties, to renounce the devil and all his works, the 
pomps and vanities of this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of 
the flesh : that we will keep God's holy will and commandments, 
and walk in the same all the days of our life ? This baptismal 
promise, which you have so often repeated from your catechism, is 
precisely the same with that contained in the fine and affecting 
hymn that you have been now singing. But shall we promise and 
not perform ? Shall we vow and not keep our vow ? God has 
heard what we have sung and said, and it is registered in heaven. 
What then do you purpose to do ? Will you continue to live to 
the world, and forget that you owe your being to God, and have 
immortal souls which must spend an eternity in heaven or hell. 



ICO MEMOIRS OF Till- LIFL, MIMSTRY, AND WRITING 



according to the state they are found in when they leave this world 
We have no time to spare : scarcely any to deliberate in : the judge 
is at the door, and death is not far behind. I have tried both lives, 
and find that a religious life has an infinite preference beyond the 
otlier. Let us then heartily forsake sin, vanity, and folly, and 
seek God by earnest prayer ; nor rest till we find he has blotted 
out all our sins, purified our hearts, and filled us with peace and 
happiness. If we seiek earnestly, and seek through Jesus Christ, 
we cannot be unsuccessful." He then prayed, and many were 
deeply affected. That night and the next morning, thirteen 
j^ersons, young men and women, came to him earnestly enquiring 
\\hat they should do to be saved. A religious concern becam.e 
general throughout the village and neighbourhood ; many young 
]);-rsons sought and found redemption in the blood of the Lamb. 
The old people, seeing the earnestness, and consistent walk of tlie 
young, beg^vU to reflect upon their ways : many were deeply 
awakened, and those who were got into a cold or lukewarm state, 
began to arise and shake them.selves from the dust, and the revival 
of pure and undefiled religion became general. Thus God showed 
him that the very circumstance of his youth, which he thought 
most against him and his usefulness, became a principal means in 
his Divine hand of his greatest ministerial success. 

Such relations are unquestionably very interesting and gratify- 
ing; but ©he's gratificatiori -vrotild have been much heightened by 
being told what specific directions were given to these awakened 
sinners, and that those directions were in all points strictly con- 
formable to the word of God* We have two instances upon record, 
in the New Testainent, that may be considered as bearing some 
little analogy to the case in hand — the first is that of the converted 
Jews on the day of Pentecost, recorded Acts, ii. 37, &c. These 
men had heard the apostle Peter preach the gospel, or make 
known the true character of Jesus of Nazareth— his sufferings, 
death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven— the consequence of 
Tchich was, that " they were pricked in the heart," and cried out^ 

Meii and brethren, what shall we do ?" The answer of the 
apostle was, " repent and be baptized every one of you in the name 
of Jesus Christ," &c— " Save yourselves from this untoward gene- 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



101 



ration." It is added by the sacred liistorian, Then tliey that 
gladly received his word were baptized — and the same day tliree 
thousand souls were added, (to the church in Jerusalem,) and they 
continued stedfastly in the apostle's doctrine, and fellowship, and 
in breaking of bread, and prayers," ver. 41, 42. In this way they 
were to glorify God for his mercy, and procure the edification of 
their souls in faith and holiness. 

The other instance is that of the jailer at Philippi, recorded Acts, 
xvi. 25, &c. This man was driven to his wits' end, and was upon 
the point of committing self-destructiofi, such was the terror and 
alarm of his awakened conscience. Addressing Paul and Silas, he 
anxiously enquu'ed, " What must I do to be saved ?" The apostles 
did not direct him to a round of relig-ious duties, but answered, 
" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, and 
thy house; and they spake tht^ word of the Lord to him, and to all 
that were in his house — and he was baptized, he and all his 
straightway — and he rejoiced, believing in God, with all his house," 
Acts, xvi. 30—32. 

This is the scriptural way of dealing with young converts, or 
persons who are inquiring the way of salvation, and it would be 
well if the teachers of religion would adhere closely to it ; in that 
case there would be no occasion for the classes and bands, recently 
so much in vogue, to the subversion of all the instituted order of a 
Christian Church. 

Mr. Clarke's thirst for classical learning continued unabated, 
and he availed himself of every opportunity to cultivate his mind 
in useful knowledge. But a circumstance took place about this 
time which had nearly proved ruinous to all his attainments in 
literature, and would utterly have prevented all future accessions 
to his present stock. While at Kingswood school he had subscribed 
to a Hebrew Grammar which Ml*. Bailey, one of the masters of the 
school had proposed to publish. It was now completed and Adam 
received his subscription copy. He entered with avidity on the 
study of this sacred language. In his Latin, Greek, and French, 
he could make but little improvement, having to travel several 
liiil; s every day, and preach, on an average, thirty days in every 
month, besides attending various other duties incumbent on a 



102 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



Methodist preacher. That he might not lose the whole time which 
he was obliged to employ in riding, he accustomed himself to read 
on horseback, and this plan of redeeming time he prosecuted 
through the summer, and in winter also when the weather was 
clear. He does not, however, advise others to copy his example 
in this respect. " The practice of reading on horseback," says he, 
" is both dangerous, because of the accidents to which one is ex- 
posed on the road ; and injurious to the sight, as it brings the 
muscles of the eye into an unnatural state of contraction, in order 
to counteract the too great brilliancy of the light." Yet what could 
he do who had so much to learn, so often to preach, and must be 
every day on horseback ? When he arrived in the evening at his 
place of residence for the night, he found no means of improvement, 
and seldom any place in which he could conveniently study or 
pray. But the circumstance that had nearly put an end to his 
studies was the following. 

In the preacher's room at Motcomb, near Shaftesbury, observing 
a Latin sentence written on the wall in pencil, relative to the vicis- 
situdes of life, he wrote under it the following lines from Virgil, 
corroborative of the sentiment : 

Quo fata trahunt^ retrahmtque sequamury — 

Per varios casus, per tot discrimina rerum, 

Tendimus in Ccelum. En^id lib. v. 7Q9. Ib» lib. i. 204. 

£n6Lished thus. 
" Let us follow the fates wherever they may lead or divert our steps*'— 
In other words, Let us submit ourselves implicitly to providence. 

'* Through various intricate paths, and through so many vicissitudes of 
affairs — we bend our steps to heaven." 

The preacher who succeeded him in rotation, observing these 
three Latin lines, the meaning of which he was not learned enough 
to decypher, consequently could not comprehend the relation tliey 
bore to those previously written, subjoined as follows : — 
" Did you write the above 
To show you could write Latin ? 
For shame ! Do send pride 
To hell, from whence it came. 
Oh ! young man, improve your 
Time, eternity's at hand." 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 103 



This was evidently an effusion of envy and spleen, and it is to be 
wished that Mr. Clarke had taken no further notice of it than to 
remind the writer of the Fable of the Fox and the Grapes, by which he 
might have been benefited. But it is truly lamentable to find, 
from his own pen, the distressing effect it had upon him. Con- 
temptible as the lines may appear, the circumstance considered 
which gave them birth had a very unfriendly effect on his simple 
and inexperienced heart ; when he cast his eye upon them he was 
thrown into complete confusion. They had been seen by the 
family, at whose house the preachers took up their abode, during 
the whole intervening week, and he knew not how to face them, 
after being thus made the victim of reproachful obloquy by a pro- 
fessed brother, and colleague in the ministry — perhaps a person 
much older than himself. In a moment of strong temptation he 
fell on his knees in the midst of the room, and solemnly protested 
that he would never more meddle with Greek or Latin as long as 
he lived! This was a hasty and most ill-judged conclusion to 
come to, and he lived to repent it bitterly. As to Hebrew, he had 
not then begun to study it, consequently it could not be included 
in the proscription; but the vow had a paralyzing effect upon this 
as well as upon all his other studies, and for some years impeded 
the cultivation of his mind. He saw that learning might engender 
pride ; and it was but too plain that, instead of provoking emu- 
lation it would only to him excite envy. When he next saw the 
preacher, who had occasioned him so much anguish of mind, he 
expostulated with him for his uncourteous and unbrotherly 
conduct, asking why he did not tell him privately, or reprove him 
by letter ? He replied, " I thought what I did was the best 
method to cure you." Mr. Clarke then told him what distress of 
mind it had occasioned him, and the determination he had formed 
henceforth and for ever to abandon the study of literature The 
other applauded his teachableness, and godly diligence, and 
assured him that he had never known any of the learned preachers 
w ho was not a conceited coxcomb ! 

This foolish affair produced an entire chasm in the classical 
studies of Adam Clarke of four years' duration, and it is happy for 
the world that it was not longer. Reflection, however, convinced 



104 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE^ MINISTKY, AND WRITINGS, 

him that the vow now made could not be acceptable in the sight of 
God; but he made it in the sincerity of his Uwt, and it appeared 
to him, therefore, that it ought to be binding. He now threw 
aside his Greek Testament, though a painful sacrifice, and en- 
deavoured to forget all that he had learned ; y^a, and laboujred to 
tear every thing of the kind for ever from his heart. This took 
place about the end of the year 1782, and was most religiously 
observed till about the year 1 786, to his irreparable loss. The 
circumstances which led him to rescind his vow, are thus detailed 
by his own pen. He had learned a little French while at school, 
as already mentioned, and happily that language was not included 
in the proscription ; he therefore found himself at liberty to read a 
portion of that language as often as it came in his way. Some- 
time about the year 1786, the Abbe Maury's well-known discourse 
on pulpit eloquence fell into his hands, the French copy — and 
going through it, his attention was arrested with the extract of a 
sermon which the Abbe had introduced, as an example of pulpit 
eloquence — the preacher was a French missionary, of the name of 
Bridane. This piece Mr. Clarke translated and forwarded to Mr. 
Wesley, for insertion in the Arminian Magazine, should it meet his 
approval. Mr. Wesley, who was ever a friend to learning, received 
it kindly, inserted the piece, and writing to young Clarke, " charged 
him to cultivate his mind, as far as his_ circumstances would allow, 
and not to forget any thing he had ever learned." This was a 
word in season, and, next to the divine oracles, of th^ highest au- 
thority with Mr. Clarke, who thus began to reason upon what Mr. 
Wesley had advised : " What would he have pie to do ? He cer- 
tainly means that I should not forget the Latin and Greek which I 
have learned : but then he does not know that by a solem?i vow I 
have abjured the study of these languages for ever. But was such 
a vow lawful? Is the study of Greek and Hebrew, the language in 
which God has given the Holy Scriptures to mankind, sinful ? It 
must surely have been laudable in some, else we should have had 
no translations. Is it likely that what was laudable in those who 
have translated the Sacred Writings can be sinful to any— especi- 
ally to those who are engaged in the office of the Christian Mi- 
nistry ? I have made the vow certainly : but who required this at 



OF THiL REV, AUAM CLARKK, LL. D., F. A. \05 

ray hand ? What have I g:ained by it ? I was told it was dangerous 
and would fill me with pride, and pride would lead me to perdition ; 
but who told me so ? Can the person at whose suggestion I aban- 
doned all these studies, be considered a competent judge — a man 
totally illiterate as regarded either language or science ? And what 
have I gained by this great sacrifice — a sacrifice made demonstrably 
without divine authority, and without the approbation of my own rea- 
son ? Am I more humble, more spiritual— and, above all, have I 
been more useful than I should have been, had I not abandoned 
those languages in which the words of the Prophets, Evangelists, 
and Apostles were written ? I fear I have been totally in an error : 
and that my vow may rank in the highest part of the catalogue of 
rash vows ! Allowing even that my vow in such circumstances, can 
be considered in any respect binding, which is the greater evil — to 
keep or to break it ? — I ought to beg pardon of God for having in- 
advertently made it — 'tis most undoubtedly sinful to keep it." 

Such were the reasonings of Adam Clarke's mind, and the result 
was that he came to the conclusion to be no longer bound by a vow 
which he had neither the authority of God nor of reason to make. 
He fell on his knees, and supplicated the Majesty of heaven to for- 
give the rash vow which he had heedlessly imposed upon himself, 
and in mercy to cancel any obligation which might remain because 
of the solemn manner in which it had been made. He arose, sa- 
tisfied that he had done wrong in making it, and that henceforth it 
was his duty to cultivate his mind in every possible way, that he 
might be a workman who needed not to be ashamed rightly divid- 
ing the word of truth. He felt a conviction that he had done right 
and such a satisfaction of mind as he did not find when he made 
that vow. 

In all this time, it does not appear to have ever once occurred t» 
Mr. Clarke, what is at least a very probable case, that the making ^ 
this rash vow was a temptation of the grand adversary, in order t 
check the progress of his studies, and deprive the world of the fruits 
of his learning. His kingdom is a kingdom of darkness, and no- 
thing is so detrimental to its interests as light and knowledge. It 
has its foundation in ignorance, superstition, falsehood, and unbelief 
— and in proportion as Divine Truth is disseminated in the enrth, 

P 



106 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

the empire of darkness must necessarily recede and be diminished. 
All knowledge is valuable, and if sanctified and properly applied 
must contribute to this high end. But the chain being broken, 
Mr. Clarke had all his work to begin de novo, and was astonished 
to find how much he had forgotten of his school -boy learning, in 
the short space of four years. He was even obliged to begin his 
grammar anew, and found it hard work to lay a second foundation, 
till practice and the association of ideas combined to level and 
smooth the rugged path. Dr. Clarke takes leave of this curious 
affair by cautioning us against supposing that the Methodists, as a 
body, undervalue and cry down human learning. A commendable 
jealousy for the honour of the sect, has led him to protest against 
this opinion. On the contrary, he assures us that th'^re is no religious 
people in the land that value it more. The great body of the Me- 
thodists, he says, love learning; and when they find it in their 
preachers, associated with humility and piety, they praise God for 
the double benefit and profit by both. This is probably more cor- 
rect when spoken of the present generation of Methodists than of 
those who flourished half a century ago ; and it cannot be doubted 
that they owe not a little of their improved taste to the labours of 
Dr. Adam Clarke. He himself admits that many of the preachers 
of that day could read but very indifferently ; he mentions one, 
who made three unsuccessful trials to pronounce the word Senna- 
cherib — first it was Sennacrih, then Sennacherub, and terminated 
with Scratchcrah ! " But such swallows," says he, " make no sum- 
mers and should never be produced as instances from which the 
general character of a class, or body of men should be deduced. 
The time is long past since men in any department of life have 
bern prized on account of their ignorance." 

Mr. Clarke gave another striking proof, about this time, of his 
profound deference to the judgment of Mr. Wesley. The latter 
published a " Letter on Tea," in which. he dissuaded his friends 
from the use of it, but on what grounds I am not able to say, hav- 
ing no recollection that I ever read the letter. It fell, however, 
into the hands of Mr. Clarke, who perused it with avidity, and, 
having finished it, said, " There are arguments here which I can- 
not answer ; and till I can answer them to my satisfaction, I will 



> OF TH-E REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 1' 7 

neither drink Tea nor Coffee." From that hour he desisted from the 
use of both— never sought for arguments to overturn those of Mr. 
Wesley, and from that day to the hour of his death, never once tasted 
tea or coffee ! At first he contented himself, on the evenings, with a 
cup of milk and water, or weak infusion of chamomile ; but finding 
that he gained no time by this means, and as that was his great 
object in desisting from the use of tea, he gave that totally up, 
never tasting anything from dinner to supper. By this act of self- 
denial and abstemiousness, he calculated that in thirty-seven years, 
he saved several whole years of time, every hour of which was 
devoted to self improvement, or some part of that work which the 
providence of God assigned him. In the morning he found it easy 
to supply the place of tea or coffee, by taking milk in some form 
or other, or such beverage as the junior parts of the families in 
which he lodged, were accustomed to take for their breakfast. 
Mr. Wesley himself, after writing against the use of tea and coffee 
and abstaining from the use of them for twelve years, resumed it, 
and continued the use of these beverages to his death. His pupil 
followed his councils without attending to his practice, as zealously 
as ever the Rechabites did those of their founder Jehonadab, re- 
specting the use of wine, Jer. ch. xxxv. 

In the year 1783, the Conference was held in Bristol ; but Mr. 
Clarke had no thoughts of attending it, till, on the 1st of August 
he received a letter summoning him thither ; and accordingly he 
set off on the following morning and reached Bristol that day 
(Saturday). On the next day (Sabbath) he heard seven sermons — 
two from Mr. Wesley, and five from other preachers ; besides at- 
tending and receiving the Sacrament which was administered by 
Mr. Wesley, Dr. Coke, the Rev. R. B. Collins, and Corn. Bailey. 
On the succeeding Wednesday, August 6th, he was admitted into 
full connexion, after having travelled as a preacher scarcely one 
year, though the usual term of admission is after four years trial ! 
a signal proof of their confidence in so young a minister. He tells 
us that he was deeply impressed with the solemnities of the occa- 
sion, and prayed earnestly for divine assistance to enable him to 
fulfil the engagements into which he then entered. 

An amusing incident is related to have happened on this occa- 



108 MXMOIRt ©r THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

8ion, and is worth recording. When preachers on their trial are ad- 
mitted into fuUconnexion with the body of the Methodist preachers — 
among many important questions put to them, is the followinj? 
" are you in debt P" To this the most satisfactory answer must be 
given. Though rather a whimsical incident, this question was 
likely to have dee^jly puzzled and non-plussed Mr. Clarke. Walk- 
. ing in the street, that morning, with another preacher, a poor man 
asked a halfpenny, not having one about him, Mr. Clarke borrowed 
one from the other preacher, and the latter happening to go out of 
town immediately after, he could not see him during the day to re- 
pay the halfpenny. Aware that when he stood up with others he 
should be questioned, are you in debt? it occurred to him that if 
he should answer " I am in debt," they would immediately ask him 
" How much ?" and if he replied " one halfpenny " — they would 
laugh at his folly. On the other hand if he should say " I am not 
in debt," he should be telling a lie ! He found himself therefore 
stuck fast within the horns of a dilemma, from which he knew not 
how to extricate himself. This was his situation when the question 
was put — "Mr. Clarke are you in debt ?" but he dissolved the dif- 
ficulty in a moment by answering " tiot one penny ;" thus both his 
credit and his conscience were saved. 

The Conference which he was then attending, appointed him to 
the Norwich circuit, whither he proceeded on Monday, August 11th, 
and arrived thither on the following Saturday, August 16th, 1783. 
During the time he was on the Bradford circuit, an interval of little 
more than ten months, he preached five hundred and six times, 
besides giving very many public exhortations, visiting families who 
belonged to the Societies, and inquiring into their spiritual con- 
cerns. He constantly preached at five o'clock every morning winter 
and summer, in the different towns in the circuit, such as Bradford, 
Trowbridge, From.e, Devizes, &c. Such, too, was his strictness, 
and so severe a censor was he of his own conduct, that he fre- 
quently condemned himself in matters that were either innocent in 
themselves, or perfectly indifferent. There was surely something 
very pharisaical in all this, and one reads it with regret. Because, 
wherever we find persons refining on the Gospel rules of holiness, 
we may rest fully assured that there is something radically wrong 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



109 



in the mind. The ancient Pharisees were remarkable for this aus- 
terity of demeanour and scrupulosity of conduct ; but there is no 
class of persons that fell so much under the censure of the Saviour 
as they did. Their zeal about religion was unbounded : they would 
compass sea and land to make one proselyte — they fasted oftener 
than even the law required ; paid tithes of anise, mint, and cummin,; 
made broad their phylacteries, and were ostentatious in their devo- 
tions, praying at the corners of the streets— in short, they took the 
lead in the Jewish religion, and, according to outward appearances, 
had the fairest pretension to righteousness of any sect on earth ; yet 
we never find our Lord in their company without a frown upon his 
countenance. " Ye are they who justify themselves before men," 
said the meek and lowly Jesus, " but God knoweth your hearts ; 
for that which is highly esteemed among men, is an abomination in 
the sight of God :" and wljoe'. er reads with marked attention the 
twenty-third chapter of the Gospel by Matthew, and ponders the 
terrible denunciations which are there put upon record against 
persons of that stamp, must necessarily tremble lest he be classed 
with them. There may be great zeal about religion and holi- 
ness, and a pressing after perfection, yet " not according to 
knowledge," as every one must know who has read the New Testa- 
ment with attention. All true holiness must take its rise from love 
to the SAVING TRUTH, or the character of God as made known in 
that truth ; for the new man is renewed in knowledge after the 
image of Him that created him — so it is termed " holiness of the 
Truth," Eph. iv. 24, Col. iii. 10. It is by the belief of this truth— 
the truth testified concerning Christ and his finished work — that 
sinners are regenerated; for, says the apostle James, Of his own 
will begat he us with the word of truth," Jam. i. 18, which agrees 
with what the apostle writes : " Being born again, not of corrup- 
tible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth 
and abideth for ever — the word of the Lord which endureth for 
ever," 1 Pet. 1 . 23 — 25. It is this doctrine, or word of the Lord, 
that is the food of the heaven-born soul, ch, ii. 2., and the same 
doctrine dwelling in the heart by faith and love, is the princi- 
ple of sanctification — hence the Saviour's prayer for his disciples : 
** Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth," John, xvii. 



110 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

17. There is no such thing as true holiness in the world, aside 
from this truth : it must possess the understanding, regulating its 

dictates, controlling its motions, influencing the will and affections 
in the way of love, desire, esteem, aversion, joy, and hope, and 
producing fruits in the believer's walk and conversation, through 
the power of the Spirit of God, or it is not true religion. I dwell 
the more particularly on tliis point, because it appears to me that 
Mr. Clarke was at this time in pursuit of a holiness which stood, 
somehow independent of the truth, or doctrine of Christ, and was 
urging all around him in pursuit of it, while that doctrine was al- 
most, if not altogether, lost sight of; but this is a fearful mistake 
against which professors should be carefully guarded. He tells us, 
that " his almost incessant cry was after holiness :" — to be cleansed 
from all sin, and filled with God, he saw to be the high calling of 
the Gospel, and the birthright of ever^' son and daughter of God. 
He could not be satisfied while he felt one temper or disposition 
that was not in harmony with the will and word of God. His mind 
was full of light, and his conscience was tender, and he was ever, 
either walking with God, or following hard after him. His jour- 
nals mark scarcely any thing but the state of his soul, his spiritual 
conflicts, resolutions, consolations, and depressions. He tithed 
even mint and cummin, and never left unregarded the weightier 
matters of the law. The people he was incessantly urging to ho- 
liness of heart and life. Repentance — Justification by faith in the 
sacrificial death of Christ ; — the witness of the Spirit in the con- 
sciences of true believers ; — Christian perfection, or the purifica- 
tion from all sin in this life ; — and the necessity' of outward holi- 
ness ; were the doctrines which he constantly pressed on the at- 
tention and hearts of his hearers ; and under his preaching many- 
were tui'ned to the Lord, and many built up on their most holy 
faith. 

It is gratifying to find Dr. Clarke entering his protest against 

the publication of journals, such as ministers and many priyate 
Christians are in the habit of registering daily occurrences in, and 
more especially theii' spiritual exercises — the ebbings and flowings 
of their religious afiections. When asked whether he would not 
j)ublish /(is journal, or leave it to be published, he answered, I do 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. HI 

not intend it : the experience of all religious people is nearly alike 
— in the main entirely so. When you have read the journal of 
one pious man of common sense, you have read a thousand. After 
the first it is only the change of names, times and places ; all the 
rest as to piety is alike." The intelligent reader, who has had an 
opportunity of perusing many religious journals which have lately 
seen the light, will readily subscribe to Dr. Clarke's judgment in 
this matter. 



SECTION V. 

Mr. Clarke is removed to the Norwich Circuit, a. D. 1783-4. 

This circuit extended into different parts of Norfolk and Suffolk, 
and comprehended the following places : Norwich, Yarmouth, 
Lowestoffe, Loddon, Heckingham, North Cove, Teasborough, Strat- 
ton, Hardwick, Thurlton, Haddiscoe, Beccles, Wheatacre, Lopham, 
Diss, Wartham, Dickleborough, Winfarthing, Barford, Hempnel, 
Besthorpe, and Thurne : in all twenty-two places. Etich preacher 
continued one week in the city of Norwich, and then proceeded on 
circuit, to accomplish which occupied the other three weeks of each 
month — a journey of more than two hundred and sixty miles. On 
his arrival at head quarters, on Saturday, August the 16th, 1783, 
Mr. Clarke found one of the late preachers ill of a fever ; and 
though he was obliged to sleep in the same room, the smell of 
which was pestiferous, he was mercifully preserved from taking the 
infection. One of his three colleagues on this circuit, was a John 
Ingham, of whom Dr. Clarke, than whom no man was ever more 
amused with the vagaries of the human mind, has left us an amu- 
sing account. He was, says he, a good natured man, of no learning, 
and of but slender abilities ; yet he had a sort of popular address 
that helped him to make his way in the circuit. He professed to 
cure many disorders ; and his prescriptions were made up of " a 
pennyworth of oil of leeks ; a pennyworth of oil of swallows," &c. 
&c, all as equally efficacious as they were attainable ! ! But al- 
though the, apothecaries and druggists had no such medicaments. 



^12 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTKY, AND WKITINeS, 

they gave the poor people somethmg under those names, that 
tvonid do as well ; and thus but little harm was done. Ingham was 
himself a most disgusting slave to the Virginia weed, and never 
preached without a quid in his mouth ! Since that tinie the Me- 
thodist connexion " have wisely proscribed (says the Doctor) both 
quackery and tobacco, as in all their forms they are disgraceful 
to a Christian minister." He also pronounces them dangerous — 
the former leads to many snares, particularly in reference to 
females : and the latter is so closely connected with intemperance 
in drinking, that few of its votaries escape ! Thus poor Ingham 
fell the following year, and was heard of in the church of God 
no more. 

It is a truly affecting account which the Doctor gives of the ex- 
isting state of religion in Norfolk, at the time he was put upon the 
circuit. He declares there was no place in it, in which religion 
flourished, either among the Methodists or others. Lukewarmness 
or Antinomianism generally prevailed. In the city of Norwich 
Hyper-Calvinism was the prevailing system — and, strange to tell, 
even in the Methodist societies were to be found Calvinists officia- 
ting as class-leaders. This must have been particularly galling to 
a person of Adam Clarke's decidedly Arminian principles. The 
consequence was, he tells us, the people were unhinged and un- 
steady — halting between two opinions. Yet he candidly owns 
" there were many good and sensible people in the society, whose 
life and conversation adorned the doctrine of God their Saviour." 

" In Norwich, the society was very poor. A family lived in the 
preacher's house, and provided for the preachers at so much per 
meal : and the bill was brought in to the stewards' and leaders' 
meeting at the end of the week and discharged : and he was most 
certainly considered the best preacher^ who ate the fewest meals, 
because his bills were the smallest. In this respect Mr. Clarke 
excelled : he took only a little milk for his breakfast, drank no tea 
or coffee ; and took nothing in the evening ; hence his bills were 
very small. Sometimes, but not often, the preachers were invited 
out, and this also contributed to lessen the expence." 

If any thing could have operated as an antidote to the office of 
Methodist preacher, upon Adam Clarke, h^e mustsurely have found 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. 



113 



it in the privations and hardships to which he was exposed, while 
upon the Norwich circuit. I do not refer merely to the circuai- 
stance of his having to clean and black his own shoes, and those of 
his brethren— though the present generation of preachers would, 
doubtless, ill brook the call to this and similiar offices ; but what 
can the reader think of the following detail, from his own pen ? 

There was but one horse in the circuit for the four preachers, 
which, when the preacher who had it out in the circuit came into 
town, he who had been the resident preacher the week before, im- 
mediately mounted, and rode olF to the country, in order to save 
expence. Thus it must frequently happen that while another was 
riding his horse, Mr. Clarke was obliged to walk the circuit and 
carry his saddle-bags on his back, that contained his linen and a 
few books. It was curious to see him set off from the chapel in 
Cherry Lane, his bags tied upon his back, and thus walk through 
the city of Norwich, and return in the same way, several days after, 
covered with dust or mud, and greatly fatigued. But this was far 
from being the worst : except at a very few places, the accommoda- 
tions were exceedingly bad. Sometimes in the severest weeks of 
one of the most severe winters, he was obliged to lodge in a loft, 
where, through the floor he could see every thing below ; and 
sometimes in an out-house, where, perhaps, for seven years together, 
there had not been a spark of fire lighted. The winter of 1 783 
was exceedingly severe, and the cold intense, even warm water in 
his room has been frozen in a few seconds ! He has ofteD been 
obliged to get into bed with a part of his clothes on — strip them 
off" by degrees, as the bed got v/armed — and then lie in the same 
position, without attempting to move his limbs, every unoccupied 
place in the bed, which his legs or other parts touched, producing 
the same sensations as if the parts had been brought into contact 
with red hot iron. It was here that he learned that the extreme of 
cold produced on the living muscle, precisely the same sensation 
SLS the extreme of heat, which rendered credible what a friend of 
his, who had travelled in Russia, told him, that \i he laid hold on 
any iron exposed to the open air, he could not separate his hand 
from it but at the expence of the skin and Eesh which came in 
contact with the metsd." ' ? 

Q 



114 MlliOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

In several places that year the snow lay from ten to fifteen feet 
deep. It began to fall on Christmas day, and did not wholly dis- 
appear before the middle of April following. The frost was so 
intense that succeeded, that he could seldom keep his saddle five 
minutes together, but must alight and walk and run, to prevent 
his feet from being frost-bitten. In the poor cabins where he 
lodged, and where there was no other kind of fire than what was 
produced by a kind of dried turf, almost entirely red earth, that 
never emitted any flame ; and where the clothing on the bed was 
very light, he suffered much ; going to bed cold and rising cold. 
Sometimes he would carry with him a parcel of coarse brown 
paper, and with a hammer and chisel, block up some of the larger 
crevices under the bed, to preserve him from total starvation ! Add 
to all this, very homely food, and sometimes but little of it, which 
the poor people most readily shared with him who came to their 
houses and their hearts with the gospel of salvation ; and who, 
except for such preaching, must have been almost totally destitute 
of that instruction, without which there was little hope of their 
salvation. It was by these means, and often in such circumstances, 
through many privations, much pain and suffering, the Methodist 
preachers spread their doctrine throughout the land ; and became 
the means of ameliorating the moral and civil condition of the great 
mass of its comparatively poor, and almost totally neglected in- 
habitants : that is, of those that are emphatically said to constitute 
its lower orders. To such preaching the nation and the state are 
under lasting obligation. 

Dr. Clarke thus apostrophizes the present generation of Metho- 
dist preachers. " Ye ministers who have entered this vineyard in 
the halcyon days of the church, think of what your predecessors 
have suffered, to make plain paths for your feet to walk in. And 
see that ye give all diligence to maintain that ground which they 
have gained by inches, and at the hazard, and nearly the expence 
of their lives. Talk not of your hardships and privations ; for of 
these ye can know comparatively nothing." 

We can readily credit Dr. Clarke when he tells us that the year 
in which be broke ground on the Norwich circuit was a year of 
severe suffering. He preached at several nesr places, and among 



OF THE RET. ADAM CLARKE, LL D., F.A.S, 



115 



others at Diss, then very unpromising, but now the head of a 
circuit. He had gone frequently there, put up his horse at an inn, 
preached, paid for his horse, then rode several miles to preach at 
some other place, without any one offering him even a morsel of 
bread ; and such was the state of his finances that both he and hi« 
horse could not be allowed to eat, and the poor brute must not fast ! 
The stipend of a Methodist preacher was, at that time, only twelve 
pounds a year, with which he had to provide clothes, books, and 
every other necessary, food alone excepted — and out of that sum 
each preacher paid a guinea annually towards a fund for the sup- 
port of superannuated preachers and preachers' widows. 

The Methodist preachers were, at that time, often called upon to 
meet the rude assaults of the mob, who did not wish to be disturbed 
in their ungodly courses ; and the county of Norfolk was distin- 
guished for this kind of conduct. Mr. Clarke did not scruple to 
pronounce it the most ungodly part of the British empire he had 
yet visited. In the city of Norwich, the preachers scarcely ever 
got through the service on a sabbath evening without having less 
or more disturbance, or a mob at the chapel doors. Even Mr. 
Wesley himself could not escape rude treatment. On one occasion, 
he visited Norwich in company with Mr. John Hampson, sen. a man 
well known in the Methodist connexion, and many years an iti- 
nerant preacher. He was a person of gigantic make, well pro- 
portioned, and of the strongest muscular powers ; he was also 
a man of powerful intellect, and grandeur of mind. When Mr. 
Wesley had finished his discourse and was coming out of the 
chapel, accompanied by some of his friends, they found the whole 
lane filled with a furious mob, who began to close in upon Mr. 
Wesley, as if determined to offer him some violence. Mr. Hampson 
perceived it, and instantly pushed forwards ; and from the attitude 
he assumed, Mr. Wesley concluded he was about to encounter the 
mob ; he therefore called out, '* Pray, Mr. Hampson, dont use any 
violence." Mr. Hampson replied as with a voice of thunder : " Let 
me alone, Sir ; if God has not given you an arm to quell this mob, 
he has given me one ; and the first man that molests you here, 
I will lay him for Dead ! " Death itself seemed to speak in the 
last word ; so terrific was the ^;one in which it was uttered. Th« 



L16 MIMOLR-S OF THi. LITZ, MINISTRY AND WRITINGS, 



mob heard, looked at the man, and were appalled — there was a 
universal rush, who should get off soonest, and in a very short 
time the lane was emptied and the mob dissipated like the thin air. 

While on the Norwich circuit, Mr. Clarke had an opportunity, 
for the first time of 1 earing- some female preachers, among the 
Methodists. He conftsses that he had previously entertained 
considerabio prejudice against this kind of ministry, but his pre- 
judices were a good deal overcome by the assurances he had re- 
ceived of good being done by it. The first he heard was a Miss 
Sewell, whom he had questioned concerning her call. She modestly 
answered by referring him to the places .vhere she had preached in 
the circuit, and for proof of her mission, wished him to enquire 
among the people whether any good had been done ! It is re- 
markable that, on no occasion when this subject came under con- 
sideration, is the least notice t.-.ken of any thing said in the apostolic 
writings upon this topic. Not the slightest attempt to get rid of 
the express prohibiiion of females teaching publickly in the church \ 
The word of God might ha\ been perfectly silent respectingthe mat- 
ter for any deference that was shev/n to it. To be told that " good 
had been done by it," was deemed sufiicient to silence all inquiries ! 
As if it were possible for us to be as certain that good was effected, 
as that it is our bounden duty co submit to the revealed will of 
God, and have all our conduct regulated by that, or that it was 
lawful for us to do evil that good may come ! 

On Saturday, August 7th, 1784, Mr. Clarke 'received a letter 
from the Leeds conference, informing him that he was appointed for 
the St. Austell circuit. East Cornwall, a journey of near 400 miles 
from the place where he then was, and with the appointment 
a guinea to defray his expences on the way ! With this famous 
provision, he set off on horse-back on Wednesday morning, August 
llth, and reached Bi ry St. Edmunds that night — the following 
day Chelmsford — the third day London, where he remained till 
the 16th. On the IStii he readied Lis old circuit, viz. Bradford, in 
Wilts, where, and at the neighbouring places he spent several days 
usefully ; and at last reached Sc. Austell . on Saturday the 28th. 
The journey on horse-back, in ihe sultry month of August must 
Jaave been a fatiguing one. He generally rode between forty and 



Of TilL REV. ADAM CLAUKE, LL. D., f A. S. 117 

jSfty miles a day , and as he had only a gumea and a half crown 
when he left Norfolk, he seldom had more than one slight meal 
a day, for the keep of his horse required nearly all his cash. A 
penny loaf served for breakfast and dinner; as to supper he was 
always obliged to take something where he rested for the night ; 
but that was generally a very slight repast. Mr Clarke sums up 
the narrative in these words. " These were times in which no man 
could be induced to take up the work of a travelling preacher, 
merely from sjcular motives — they were, moreover, times in which 
iio man who had not the life of God in his soul, and an ardent 
desire lor the salvation of men, and a clear testimony of his own , 
call to the work, could possibly continue in it," 

SECTION VI. 

Mr. Clarke is appointed to the St. Austell Circuit — Commences his 
acquaintance with Samuel Drew, Sfc, A. D. 1784 — 5. 

This was a very heavy circuit on which Mr. Clarke was now 
called to labour. It included no less than forty distinct stations at 
which he was to be engaged in preaching, and they lay at con- 
siderable distances. The circuit comprehended the eastern part of 
the county of Cornwall, from the north to the south sea — the 
riding was constant — the roads generally bad — and the accommo- 
dations, in most places, very indifferent. These inconveniencies, 
however, were more than compensated to him, by the spirit of 
hearing which almost universally prevailed — a thing widely differ- 
ent from what he had experienced on the Bradford circuit. In 
Cornwall thousands flocked to the preaching, the chapels could 
not contain the crowds that came to hear ; and almost every week 
in the year, Mr. Clarke had to preach in the open air, at times too 
when the rain was pouring down upon them, and when the snow 
lay deep upon the ground. " But the prosperity of Methodism," 
to use his own words, " made every thing pleasant ; for the toil, in 
almost every place, was compensated by a blessed ingathering of 
sinners to Christ, and a general renewing of the face of the 
country." 



118 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

Mr Clarke arrived at St. Austell, on Saturday, August 28th, 
1 784, and found that his fellow labourers on this circuit were Mr. 
Francis Wrigley and Mr. William Crouch — the former had already 
been one year upon the circuit, consequently was better informed 
concerning it than a new comer could be. In a little time, the 
heavenly flame broke out in an extraordinary degree at St. Austell, 
and great numbers joined the society. Among these was Mr. 
Samuel Drew, a youth just then terminating his apprenticeship 
to a shoemaker, but who afterwards became a local preacher 
among the Methodists, and an author of distinguished reputation. 
Of such a man, whom Dr. Adam Clarke did not disdain to number 
among his friends, and keep up a correspondence with him through 
life, I must be allowed to introduce something more than a pass- 
ing notice in these pages. Dr. Clarke and Mr. Drew were pleasant 
in their lives and in their deaths they were not long divided. The 
Doctor's death was so severe a stroke to the latter that he felt it 
most sensibly — it operated as a death-blow to him, and he survived 
it only a few months. 

Mr. Drew was born on the 3d of March, 1765, in an obscure 
cottage in the parish of St. Austell, at the distance of a mile and a 
half from the town. His parents were poor but pious. His father 
was a day labourer, who earned a bare subsistence for his family 
as a husbandman. He had heard Mr. John Wesley to his soul's 
profit, early in life, and joined the society. Such, indeed, was the 
poverty of Mr. Drew's parents, that though convinced of the value 
of education, they were unable to confer the boon upon their 
children, except for a very limited period. He lost his mother 
when he was about seven years of age, and it was to him a great 
loss, for he owed it to her assistance that he was enabled to read 
easy lessons — to his elder brother he was indebted for what little 
he was taught of writing, which consisted of little more than form- 
ing the letters of the alphabet. This was the extent of his educa- 
tion — all the rest he owed to his own skill and perseverance. At 
the early age of seven or eight he was sent to work at a tin-mill 
near his father's cottage, at three halfpence per day, but his wages, 
in process of time, were raised to twopence ! This was left in his 
master's hands to accumulate j but when it had amounted to six 



OF THE RET. ADAiM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



119 



sliillings, the latter became insolvent, and poor Samuel lost his 
little all. When rather more than ten years old, his father bound 
him an apprentice to a shoemaker for the long term of nine years. 

During his apprenticeship, young Drew had an opportunity of 
seeing occasionally a little publication, then popular in the 
Western counties, called the " Weekly Entertainer," and he 
became much interested in the narratives and anecdotes which it 
contained. This prevented his losing the little ability to read 
which he had once acquired; but the art of writing he almpst 
entirely lost for want of exercise. The treatment which he 
received while an apprentice being such as he was unable to 
endure, he left his master, when about seventeen, and refused to 
return, which obliged his father to compound for the residue of his 
time. He then got employment and further improvement in the 
business, at Millbrook, near Plymouth, in which place and neigh- 
bourhood he continued about three years. About the end of the 
year 1784, when about twenty years of age, he removed to St. 
Austell, to conduct the shoemaking business, for a person who was 
occasionally a bookbinder ; with this employer he continued about 
three years, and then commenced business in that town on his own 
account. 

Hitherto Mr. Drew appears to have been very careless and 
unconcerned about religion. He had gained a reputation among 
his associates for dexterity in argument, and shrewdness of remark ; 
but to the more important matters of personal piety he had shown 
a degree of repugnance. His high flow of spirits, jocose manner, 
and vivacious disposition, rather prompted him to reject the solemn 
truths of religion, and even to ridicule those of his acquaintance 
who made any profession of it. It was not until Adam Clarke was 
appointed to the East Cornwall circuit, that Mr. Drew manifested 
any particular concern about his immortal interests, or had his 
mind at all awakened to a concern about the " One thing needful." 
It was by the preaching of Mr. Clarke and his colleagues that Mr. 
Drew's attention was first roused to the subject of personal religion. 
An elder brother of his had joined the Methodist society some time 
before, and being taken ill, which issued in his death at the age of 
twenty-two, the affecting occurrence made a deep and lasting im- 



120 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

pression on the mind of Samuel Drew. It brought the subject of 
his own mortality home to himself, and in a very few weeks he 
joined the Methodist society, of which he soon became an efficient 
member, enagaging- with his accustomed energy in their public 
labours for the welfare of mankind. His talents could not be> 
overlooked by Mr. Clarke and his colleagues ; they soon called 
them into exercise, and he soon became a class-leader and em- 
ployed as a local preacher, an office which he continued to labour 
in till within a few months of his death. 

The occasional perusal of books which were brought to the shop 
of his employer to be bound, awakened Mr. Drew to a conscious- 
ness of his own ignorance, and, to use his own words, induced him 
to form the resolution of abandoning the grovelling views which he 
had been accustomed to entertain of things, and to quit the 
practices of his old associates. He determined to acquire know- 
ledge — and this determination once formed, every moment he could 
snatch from sleep and labour was now devoted to the reading of 
such books as his limited finances placed within his reach. One of 
the difficulties which he had to encounter at the commencement of 
his literary career arose from his unacquedntedness with the 
import of words. To surmount this, he found it necessary, while 
reading, to have continual recourse to a Dictionary. The process 
was tedious, but it was unavoidable, and the difficulty lessened at 
every step. In a little time, a new world expanded upon his view!: 
All its paths were untried ; and in what direction to push his in- 
quiries he was for some time undecided. 

Astronomy first attracted his attention ; but to the pursuit of 
this noble science, his ignorance of arithmetic and geometry was 
an insuperable obstacle. In history, to which his views were next 
directed^ no proficiency could be made without extensive reading ; 
and he had tooslittle command of time and money for such a pur- 
pose. The religious bias of his mind, however, tended strongly to 
give a theological direction to his studies ; and from the apparently 
accidental perusing of Locke's Essay on the Human Understand- 
ing, he acquired a predilection for the higher exercises of the mind. 

In the year 1798, he laid the foundation of his Essay on the 
Human Soul ; but while that work was yet in embryo, a young 



OF THii R£V. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 1*21 

p;entleman put into his hands Paine 's Age of Reason, hoping to 
bring him over to the principles of infidelity. The sophistry of 
that deistical performance, was easily detected by the acute and 
powerful mind of Samuel Drew, who committed his thoughts 
to writing, and published them in 1799. The little work was 
favourably received, and procured for its author the steady friend- 
ship of the Rev. John Whitaker, a clergyman of high reputation. 
The anti- Jacobin reviewers, adverting to these remarks on Paine, 
say, " We here see a shoe-maker of St. Austell, encountering a 
stay-maker of Deal, with the same weapons of unlettered reason, 
tempered, indeed, from the armoury of God, yet deriving their 
principal power from the native vigour of the arm that wields 
them. Samuel Drew, however, is greatly superior to Thomas 
Paine, in the justness of his remarks, in the forcibleness of his 
arguments, and in the pointedness of his refutations." Mr. Drew 
had the satisfaction of knowing, that his small volume was the 
means of leading the young gentleman, who put the Age of 
Reason into his hands, to renounce those deistical principles to 
which he had hoped to proselyte Mr. Drew, and to embrace, with 
full conviction, the doctrines of Christianity. A second edition of 
the " Remarks," with the author's corrections and additions, was 
published in 1820. 

Not long after the publication of the Remarks on Paine, Mr. 
Drew was engaged in defending the Methodists from an attack 
made upon them by a Cornish clergyman of the name of Polwhele, 
in what he called " Anecdotes of Methodism." Mr. Drew thought 
this a proper subject for remark, and accordingly published 
" Observations on Mr. Polwhele's Anecdotes of Methodism," but: 
both the attack and defence have now sunk into oblivion. [ 

In 1802, the " Essay on the Immateriality and Immortality of 
the Soul" made its first appearance, dedicated to the Rev. John 
Whitaker, whose patronage had, in a great measure, drawn Mr. 
Drew forth from obscurity. To this work he is mainly indebted 
for his reputation as a metaphysician — and it brought him into 
honourable notice beyond his native country. The work has 
reached a Jifth edition in England : it has also gone through 
s<:'V(iraI editions in America ; it has been translated into French 



122 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

and published in France. The following extract from a letter 
written by Mr. Drew to a literary gentleman in Cornwall, well 
depicts his mode of study, and exhibits some of the difficulties and 
disadvantageous circumstances under which this important work 
was composed. 

'''During these literary pursuits, I regularly and constantly 
attend to my busines ; and do not recollect that ever one customer 
was disappointed by me through these means. My mode of 
writing and study may have in them perhaps something peculiar. 
Immersed in the common concerns of life, I endeavour to lift my 
thoughts to objects more sublime than those with which I am sur- 
rounded ; and while attending to my trade, I sometimes catch the 
fibres of an argument, of which I endeavour to note the prominent 
features, and keep a pen and ink by me for that purpose. In this 
state, what I can collect through the day remains on my paper 
which I have at hand, till the business of the day is despatched, 
and my shop shut up, when, in the midst of my family, I endea- 
Your to analyze, in the evening, such thoughts as had crossed my 
mind through the day. I have no study — I have no retirement — I 
write amidst the cries and cradles of my children — and frequently, 
when I review what I had previously written, endeavour to culti- 
vate the ' art of blotting.' Such are the methods which I have 
pursued, and such the disadvantages under which I write. The 
public, however, have overlooked that diversity of style and 
manner which are inseparable from this motley cast of composition. 
I have been treated with more respect by the enlightened inhabi- 
tants of Cornwall, who have given me credit for abilities which I 
am not conscious of possessing ; and the claims which such favours 
have upon my gratitude, I hope will never be forgotten by 

'' Samuel Drew." 

The success of the " Essay on the Soul" prompted the author to 
further mental exertion. By a natural concatenation of ideas, his 
mind was led to investigate the evidences of a General Resurrec- 
tion of the body. From this investigation, the subject of Personal 
Identity was inseparable ; and in 1809, he delivered to the public 
a volume on the " Identity and Resurrection of the Human Body," 
Of this 'vrork a lecond edition appeared in 1822. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A.S. 123 

Mr. Drew retired from business in 1805, in consequence of an 
engagement he had entered into with Dr. Thomas Coke, to assist 
him in the remodelling of Dr. Dodd's Commentary on the Bible> 
which the former dexterously passed off as his own work 1 Hitherto 
literature had been the employment of Mr. Drew's leisure hours ; 
from this time it became his occupation. 

In the year 1811, he entered the lists as a competitor for Mr. 
Burnet's premium of £1200 for the best treatise, and £400 for the 
treatise next in merit, on " The Evidence for the Being, Perfections, 
and Attributes of God" — but the award was made, for the first 
prize to Dr. Lawrence Browne, of Aberdeen ; and for the second, 
to Dr. Sumner, since bishop of Winchester. But though unsuc- 
cessful, Mr. Drew concluded on publishing what had cost him so 
much laborious thought ; and, after submitting his manuscript to 
the inspection of Professor Kidd, of Aberdeen ; and Dr. Olinthu^ 
Gregory, of Woolwich, — and availing himself of their valuable 
suggestions, it was printed in 1820, in 2 vols. 8vo. Mr. Drew, 
himself, always regarded this as by far the ablest of all his produc- 
tions, and it certainly contributed much to increase his reputation. 
The University of Aberdeen conferred upon him the honorary dis- 
tinction of master of arts, as a token of their respect for this and 
his preceding essays. 

Mr. Drew's several publications introduced him to the notice, 
and procured him the friendship of several distinguished in- 
dividuals. This served, moreover, to strengthen the intimacy, and 
keep alive a reciprocity of feeling, which, from the beginning of 
their acquaintance, had existed between him and Dr. Clarke, with 
whose early recollections, as a minister, Mr. Drew was associated, 
and with whom he long maintained a correspondence. As a 
decisive proof of the estimation in which the learned Doctor held 
the character of his friend, the reader may take his own words, 
which are as follow : — A man of primitive simplicity of 
manners, amiableness of disposition, piety towards God, and bene- 
volence to men, seldom to be equalled ; and for reach of thought, 
keenness of discrimination, purity of language, and manly elo- 
quence, not to be surpassed in any of the common walks of life. 
In short, his circumstances considered, with the mode of hi« educa- 



I2i MEMOIRS OF TlJE LITE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

tion, he is one of those prodigies of nature and grace which God 
rarely exhibits ; but which ^erve to keep up the connecting link 
between those who are confined to houses of clay, whose founda- 
tions are in the dust, and beings of a superior order in those 
regions where infirmity cannot enter, and where the sunshine of 
knowledge neither siiifers diminution nor eclipse." 

When Messrs. Nuttall, Fisher, & Co. of Liverpool, projected the 
Imperial Magazine, in the beginning of 1819, and were casting 
about in quest of an editor, Dr. Clarke recommended Mr. Drew 
for that office ; and *in engagement was promptly entered into, 
which led to his removal from St. Austell to Liverpool, and after- 
wards to London, where he continued to discharge the duties of 
this responsible situation till March 1833. Of his declining days 
and deatli, ihis is not the place to speak. Apprehensive that his 
end was come, he retired to Helston, in his native county, about 
the middle of March, and ended his days on the 29th of that 
month, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. 

Thoso who would estimate Mr. Drew's character aright, must 
not overlook the difficulties he surmounted. From education he 
derived little or no assistance. His youth was passed in ignorance 
and poverty ; and he was twenty years of age before he began to 
read or to think. Yet, before he attained the meridian of life, he had 
accumulated a vast fund of knowledge on various branches of 
science; and there were few topics of speculative philosophy with 
which he was unacquainted. To measure him by the attainments 
or the works of those whose literary career commenced in child- 
hood, would be scarcely doing him justice ; yet, as a writer on 
abstruse subjects, he would suffer little by the comparison. 

Mr. Drew was an acute reasoner, and a close and laborious 
thinker. He could discover, almost by intuition, the bearing of a 
proposition. To his habit of persevering and patient investigation, 
we are indebted for his most elaborate and convincing arguments. 
His leading characteristic was clear-sightedness. But he never 
lost sight of the fact, that the human capacity is necessarily 
limited, and consequently that discussion beyond a certain point 
becomes perplexing and unprofitable. Though it was in abstruse 
investigation that Mr. Drew's superiority to other men was most 



or THE RKV. ADAM CLARKE LL. D., F. A. S 125 

conspicuous, he was not mcoiui etent to the lighter pursuits of 
literature. It was his correct judgment in matters of taste, and his 
careful attention to the details of literary business, that qualified 
him to write the history of his native county, and to edit a 
magazine. Thoug^h an able metaphysician, there was nothing 
austere or cynical about Mr. Drew ; he was in every feature the 
reverse of this. His kindness and benevolence were unceasing, 
and they prompted him to many acts of unostentatious charity. 
His affability, after he had been raised in the scale of society, 
rendered him as accessible to his old acquaintances, as when he 
was their daily companion. His playfulness of manner, and rich 
fund of anecdote, made him the delight of young people, and he 
was just as well pleased as themselves, to join in their pastimes. 
His memory was very tenacious, and that, added to his natural 
vivacity, rendered his cor '>ri nation exceedingly interesting; of 
course, his company was courted by all who had the pleasure of 
his acquaintance. 

Though Mr. Drew professed himself an Arminian, yet his en- 
larged and liberal mind raised him above the contracted vision of 
sectarianism. As a preacher he had no claim to the graces of 
oratory ; but his powerful reasonings and energetic delivery, ob- 
tained him the attention of his hearers. His illustrations were 
peculiarly successful, the force of which was always felt, even by 
those who were unable to follow his train of thought. At one 
time his discourses were deemed too metaphysical for the pulpit, 
but in his latter years, without losing their characteristic distinc- 
ion, they became decidedly experimental and practical. On his 
leligious profession, Mr. Drew's life was the best commentary, he 
was highly respected by all who knew him while living, and 
honoured by their testimonies of unfeigned sorrow at his decease. 
Cornwall is proud to name Samuel Drew among her sons ; and his 
name gives importance to the place of his nativity. I now return 
from this digression. 

Mr. Clarke met with an accident, on the 17th of December, 1784, 
which had nearly proved fatal to him. When he first commenced 
circuit preaching at Bradford he had no horse ; and a gentleman 
of the place knowing this, said, he would make the young preacher 



126 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

a present of one, and among other good qualities for which he ex- 
tolled the animal, he said he was an excellent chaise horse. Mr. 
Wesley, who was present, said, " One of my horses troubles us 
very much, for he often takes it into his head that he will not draw. 
Had I not better take your horse, Mr. R. and let brother Clarke 
have mine. He may be a good hack, though a bad chaise horse." 
The change was accordingly made, and Mr. Clarke got Mr. Wes- 
ley's horse, of which he was not a little proud ; but it turned out a 
bad exchange, for Mr. Clarke scarcely ever rode a journey of ten 
miles, in which the animal did not fall and endanger the rider's life. 
His friends often entreated him to dispose of this dangerous beast, 
but his affection for its old master made him turn a deaf ear to all 
they could say on that subject : and one reason was that he enter- 
tained a fear lest, if he parted with the animal, it might fall into 
the hands of some one that would not use it well. On the evening 
above mentioned, it happened to be a hard frost, and riding over 
the down above Rutherbridge the horse fell, according to custom, 
and pitched Mr. Clarke directly on his head. He lay sometime 
senseless, but how long he could not tell. When he came a little 
to himself, he felt as if in the agonies of death, and earnestly re- 
commended his soul into the hands of his Redeemer. However, he 
so far recovered, that with extreme difficulty he reached the house 
where he was to preach. The congregation assembled, and the 
good people, not knowing the extent of the injury he had sustained, 
pressed him to preach, though he was unable to draw a full breath, 
and was scarcely able to stand. He yielded to their entreaties and 
recommended to them the salvation of God. His pain was so great 
that he got no rest during the night. The next day a person was 
sent with him to hold him upon the horse, that he might reach 
Port Isaac, where he might avail himself of medical aid. He suf- 
fered greatly on his journey — for every step the horse took seemed 
like a dart run through his body. Arriving at Port Isaac, Dr. 
Twentyman was sent for who bled him. It appeared that some of 
the vertebrae of the spine had been materially injured. He was 
told he must remain in the house some days, but that could not be 
done ; there were no less than /pwr places in which he was expected 
to preach the following day ; and this he actually did at the im- 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL, D., F. A. S. 127 



mment risk of his life ! It was more than three years before he 
completely recovered the effects of this disastrous fall. But after 
this narrow escape from death, he was persuaded to part with his 
horse, which he changed with a farmer, whose reverence for Mr. 
Wesley would induce him to use the horse mercifully. 

Riding between St. Austell and Meadows on the 6th of Januaiy 
1785, Mr. Clarke saw a remarkable phenomenon which he thus 
describes : " A body of fire something like a comet, with the head 
foremost, and the tail terminating in a point, rose out of the West, 
and directing its course eastward, traversed nearly a quadrant of 
the heavens, leaving a fiery highway after it, through the whole of 
its course, till it had entirely expended itself. Its duration was 
nearly a minute ; but after the fire had disappeared, the oblique, 
or wavy path which it had made, was visible for atleast fifteen mi- 
nutes. It seemed as if it had left a deeply indented path in the sky." 
^ This phenomenon would naturally suggest to the pious mind of 
Mr. Clarke, that solemn event which awaits the mundane system, 
when the designs of eternal mercy shall have been accomplished 
on the church of God, and which is so strikingly described by the 
pen of inspiration, 2 Pet. iii. 10, and other places 

This was a very laborious period of the life of Mr. Clarke, and 
young, active, and zealous as he was, it had nearly destroyed his 
constitution. Besides preaching out of doors in all weathers, and 
at all seasons, he frequently preached twice and even thrice on 
week days ; and three sabbaths out of four, he preached regularly 
four times each day in different places, in addition to which he had 
to ride many miles in order to supply them. These incessant 
preachings connected with the injury he received by the fall of his 
horse, reduced him to such a state of exhaustion, that he lost his 
appetite, his flesh sunk, and he often bled at the nose so copiously, 
even in the pulpit, that his friends apprehended he was sinking ra- 
pidly into consumption. He preached five hundi'ed and sixty-eight 
sermons during the year he was upon this circuit, and rode in his 
work many hundreds of miles. In addition to this he delivered in- 
numerable public exhortations ; but he was willing to spend and 
be spent for the Gospel's sake ; and he was supported under his 
arduoijs labours by the satisfaction of seeing Methodism prosper. 



!\n:MoiRs of the life, ministry, and WlUrtNGS, 

The spirit of hearing was ahnost universal — the congregations were 
large ; numbers were aroused to a concern for their salvation, and 
joined the Societies. Mr. Clarke indeed gave up his own life for 
lost, and felt himself continually on the verge of eternity. He stu- 
died to walk with God, kept up a severe watch on his heart and 
conduct, and gave no quarter to any thing in himself that did not 
bear the stamp of holiness. His popularity was great, but he was 
not lifted up by it. He was conscious of being the subject of much 
weakness, ignorance, and imperfection in himself, and this humbled 
him in his own eyes : the result was that his popularity promoted 
his usefulness and of it he made no other advantage. 

His vow to abandon the study and use of classical learning was 
still upon him ; but he read some treatises on different parts of 
chemistry, and having borrowed the use of a friend's laboratory, he! 
went through the process of refining silver, that he might be the 
better able to comprehend the meaning of those texts of Scripturfe 
in which this operation is alluded to. He read several books on 
alchemy, the perusal of which was recommended by a friend much 
devoted to these studies ; besides which he went through several of 
the initiatory operations recommended by professed adepts in that 
science. This study was the means of greatly enlarging his views 
in the operations of nature, as he saw many wonders performed by 
chemical agency. It also served to divert his mind from that in- 
tensity of thought on other matters, which had previously greatly 
depressed him. 

Some of his choicest friends and associates were made during the 
time he was upon the St. Austell circuit. For, independent of Mr. 
Samuel Drew, already mentioned, George Mitchell, inventor of the 
patent window frame, — Joseph Avard, now a magistrate in Prince 
Edward's Island, and several others who have since become distin- 
guished either in literature or mechanics, were at this auspicious 
sera joined to the Methodists' Society, the fruit of Mr. Clarke's mi- 
nistry. But especially was it in this circuit that Providence raised 
up to him, one of the rarest gifts of heaven — namely, a true friend 
— a friend that loveth at all times ; the " Amicus certus, qui in re 
incerta cernitur." This was " Mr. Richard Mabyn, of Camelford, 
a man who took him to his bosom, watched over him with the so- 



OIP THE REV, ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. 3. 129 



ilcitude of the most affectionate father, bore with his weakness, 
instructed his ignorance, and "helped him forward in his Christian 
course, by his prayers. His house was his only home on earth ; 
and for him and for his most affectionate wife, Mr. Clarke enter- 
tained a filial respect and tenderness." Mr. Mabyn died in the 
year 1820, but till that period the friendship which had then sub- 
sisted for five and thirty years, knew neither diminution nor decay. 
** He was" says Mr. Clarke, writing in the year 1819 — ' one of 
those friends who was as dear as a brother, and on whose mind 
the changes and chances of time made no impression in respect to 
the object of his friendship. May the sun of his spiritual prospe- 
rity never be clouded, but shine brighter and broader till its set- 
ting ! Local distance has long separated them ; though Mr. Clarke 
has contrived to pay him a visit in Camelford. However, they 
cannot be long separated. Mr. Mabyn in the course of nature 
must soon pass Jordan, and his friend Mr. Clarke cannot be long- 
behind him, — they will shortly be joined — 

" In those Elysian seats 

. ' Where Jonathan his David meets." 

Mr. Clarke during the year he spent on the St. Austell circuit, 
had no leisure for examining the antiquities of Cornwall, though 
he wanted not inclination. Subsequently, however, when visiting 
Mr. Mabyn, he examined the " logging stones" and " rock basins," 
at Raw-tor, of which he wrote a new theory, and took down the in- 
cription on what is called " Arthur's Tombstone," oa the plain 
where the famous and decisive battle was fought between Arthur 
and his son-in-law, Mordred j in which, though the latter was slain, 
and his army totally routed, yet the former received his death's 
wound, and shortly after died at Glastonbury. 



130 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



SECTION VII. 

Removal of Mr. Clarke to the Plymouth Dock Circuit. A.D. 1785 — 6. 

The great success which had crowned Mr. Clarke's labours 
while on the East Cornwall circuit, naturally made his friends in 
that quarter anxious to secure his continuance Oimong them another 
j^ear; and at the conference which was held at London, August, 
1785, a pressing application was made to that effect. Mr. Wesley, 
at first yielded to the request ; but on further consideration, the 
state of matters at Plymouth Dock, where a rent had been made in 
the Methodist Society, and a Mr. W. Moore had seceded, taking 
fifty members along with him, determined him to send Mr. Clarke 
thither, as one whose zeal and popular talents were best adapted 
to heal the breach and counteract the measures of the disaffected 
party. Accordingly Mr. Clarke received his appointment, and en- 
tered on this new circuit, August 27th, 1785. 

This new sphere of action and usefulness, included places, partly 
in Devonshire, and pal-tly in Cornwall. The principal towns were, 
besides Plymouth and£)ocA;,now cdWe^Devonport, Torpoint, Stone- 
house, Plympton, Tavistock, Launceston, &c. &c. Mr. Clarke's 
fellow preachers were John Mason and John King ; with these 
men he lived and laboured in the most perfect harmony, and the 
cause of Methodism prospered greatly, for in the course of the year 
more than a hundred were added to the Society. The congrega- 
tions became immense, and from the Dock yard, and the ships in the 
Hamoaze, multitudes flocked to the preaching, and many, it was 
hoped, were brought to God. Mr. Clarke availed himself of every 
opportunity to make excursions into different, parts of Cornwall, 
breaking up new ground as it were, and forming new Societies* 
He also preached at Plymouth Dock, at five o'clock in the morn- 
ing throughout the year, frequently going about to the different 
houses, in the dark winter mornings, with his lanthorn, to call up 
those who should, as he thought, attend the preaching. 

Mr. Clarke's residence at Plymouth, appears to have been much 
more favourable to the pursuit of learning and the acquisition of 
knowledge, than any of his former stations. It was while on this 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 13l 

circuit that he got emancipated from his rash vow, made four years 
before while on the Bradford circuit, the particulars of which have 
been anticipated. It was his felicity at this time to form an ac- 
quaintance with James Hore Esq. of the Royal Navy, afterwards 
Purser of the ship of war, the Venerable, Admiral Duncan's flag ship, 
when he gained the famous victory over the Dutch fleet, under the 
command of De Winter. From Mr. Hore he procured the loan of 
Chambers' Cyclopoedia, the original edition in two volum.es folio. 
This elaborate work proved a rich repast to his mind ; it was a 
library in itself ; and in the study of it he spent almost all his 
leisure hours, gratifying his philosophical taste, and greatly aug- 
menting the sum of his knowledge. According to his own account 
of the matter, he made nearly every subject there discussed his 
own ; and laid in a considerable stock of valuable information 
which he laid under contribution to his ministerial labours. He 
has often said that he was more indebted to Mr. Hore for the loan 
of this work, than he could well express : the gift of a thousand 
indiscriminate volumes, would not have equalled the utility of this 
loan. Considering the benefit he derived from it, one almost ceases 
to wonder at the very high commendation he continued through 
life to bestow upon it, preferring it to every other work of the kind 
in our own country, and even as far surpassing the French Ency- 
clopoedie, in 35 vols, folio ! allowing, however, for later discoveries 
and improvements. As soon as his finances enabled him to pur- 
chase a book of any magnitude he bought this, and continued to 
preserve a copy of it in his library, in grateful remembrance of the 
great service he had formerly derived from it. It is certainly true, 
however, that when he had it in his power to add the Encyclo- 
pedia Britannica in 20 vols. 4to. to his library, he did not dis- 
dain to do it— a fact which the writer of this memoir has it in his 
power to attest upon the best possible evidence, having supplied 
him with the parts, as they issued from the press, in the capacity of 
bookseller, when they both resided at Liverpool about the year 1795. 

Of Chambers' Cyclopoedia, Mr. Clarke has said that " this work, 
castigated to the present improved state of science, and enlarged 
about one third or one half, so that it might make three or four volumes 
folio, without changing Mr. Chambers* plan, would comprehend all 



132 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGff, 

that is essentially necessary for a work of this kind ; and be highly 
acceptable to the public ; instead of those vast voluminous works, 
which are beyond the purchase of those persons who need them 
most, and would profit most by them ; and in which, disjointed and 
shapeless lumber is of more frequent occurrence than valuable furni- 
ture or useful implements." — a pretty pointed allusion, beyond 
doubt, to Dr. Rees' last edition of Chambers' Cyclopoedia, though 
cautiously expressed ! 

The veto being now taken off the study of the Latin and Greek 
languages, Mr. Clarke purchased Leigh's Critica Sacra, a work 
of great study and research, and invaluable to a biblical scholar. 
It not only furnishes the literal sense of every Greek and Hebrew 
word in the Old and New Testaments, but enriches almost every 
definition with philological and theological notes drawn from the 
best grammarians and critics. To this work, of which the best 
edition is that of London 1662, with a supplement to both parts, 
most succeeding Lexicographers have been greatly indebted, and it 
helped him greatly in his study of the Hebrew. But he received 
further and very important aid, from a lady to whom he was per- 
sonally unknown, but who hearing of his thirst for knowledge lent 
him Dr. Kennicott's edition of the Hebrew Bible, two folio volumes, 
with various readings collected from near seven hundred manu- 
scripts, and early printed editions. This lady was no other than 
Dr. Kennicott's own sisU r (Miss Kennicott, of Dock). The'work 
was then but recently published ; and had Mr. Clarke not seen it 
in this providential way, several years must have elapsed before it 
could have fallen under his notice. A careful study of the book, 
gave him the first knowledge of biblical criticism. 

At Plymouth Dock some curious proceedings took place in the 
conducting of the psalmody which deserve mention in this place, on 
account of the judicious observations Dr. Clarke has made upon 
the subject. A new chapel had been erected, in the Methodist 
connection, upon an improved plan ; but the congregations had 
increased in numbers so greatly, that this new place of worship 
was found too small for their accommodation, without incommoding 
a choir of singers. This self constituted body set their mind upon 
a particular seat, which the tmstees found it impossible to give up 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S, 



133 



to them without manifest impropriety ; and when this important 
corporation found they could not have the places they wished, they 
took up a quarrel against their Maker, and entered into a private 
resolution not to sing- in the chapel. It was Mr. Clarke's tui ii to 
preach in the old chapel, at the Gun-Wharf, on a sabbath morning 
at seven o'clock, and there they intended to give the first exhibition 
of their dumb show ! When he gave out the hymn, all the choris- 
ters were silent. The whole band was there, but not a note was 
raised. Unacquainted with their conspiracy, and thinking that 
probably they could not find the page, or did not know the measure, 
Mr. Clarke gave out both again, and then looked the singers full 
in the face, which they returned with great steadiness of counte- 
nance ! He then raised the tune himself and the congregation 
continued the singing. When the time arrived for giving out a 
second hymn, he proceeded as ]>efore — still the singers w ere mute. 
He then raised the tune, and the congregation joined in tlie worship, 
thus superseding their labours. In process of time an explanation 
was given, the sum total of which was, that, as the trustees wouhi 
not oblige them with the places they wished to have, their adorable 
Creator should have no vocal song from them ! On this unseemly 
conduct Dr. Clarke very properly remarks, that it affords a striking 
instance, how difficult it is to satisfy a choir of singers — of how 
little use they are in general, and how dangerous they are at all 
times to the peace of a Christian church. The impiety of this con- 
duct appeared to him in a most hideous point of view ; for," says 
the Doctor, if the singing be designed to set forth the praises of 
God, their refusing to do this because l^iey could not have their 
own wills in sitting in a particular place, though they were offered 
free of expence one of the best situations in the chapfl, w^as a 
broad insult on their Maker. But they continued this ungodly 
farce hoping to reduce the trustees, preachers, and society to the 
necessity of capitulating at discretion. The besieged, ho wever, by 
appointing a man to be always present to raise the tunes, cut off" 
the whole choir at a stroke. From this time the liveliness and 
piety of the singing were considerably improved — for, the congre- 
gation instead of listening to the warbling of the choir, all joined 
in, and tliQ singing the praise^ of the Lord resounded from every 



134 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

mouth." The Doctor declares that this was not a solitary instance ; 
for that he had often witnessed similiar disaffection in other places, 
by means of these bands of singers, and has often been heard to 
say ; " though I never had a personal quarrel with tlie singers in 
any place, yet, I have never known one case where there was a 
choir of singers, that they did not make disturbances in the socie- 
ties ; and it would be much better in every case, and in every 
respect, to employ a precentor, or a person to raise the tunes, and 
then the congregation would learn to sing, the purpose of singing 
would be accomplished, every mouth would confess to God, and a 
horrible evil would be prevented, — the bringing together into the 
house of God, and making them the almost only instruments of 
celebrating his praises, such a company of gay, airy, giddy, and 
ungodly men and women, as are generally grouped in such choirs ; 
for, voice and skill must be had, let decency of behaviour and 
morality be where they will. Every thing must be sacrificed to a 
good voice, in order to make the choir complete and respectable." 

Unquestionably these remarks do great credit to the learned 
doctor : Many and great scandals have been brought into the 
church of God by these bands of professional singers, and their 
accompaniments. Mr. Clarke was justly grieved with the conduct 
of the singers at Plymouth Dock in particular, for several of whom 
he had a high respect on account of their good sense, amiable 
manners, and true piety. But this eulogy applied to them merely 
in their individual capacity ; for, when once merged in the choir, 
they felt only for its honour and became like to other men. He 
tells us that disturbances of this kind which he had witnessed in 
all the large societies, have led him often seriously to question, 
whether public singing made any essential part of the worship of 
God I most of those who are employed in it being the least spiritual 
part of the church of Christ — generally proud, self-willed, obstinate, 
and untractable ; add to which they uniformly hinder congrega- 
tional singing, the congregation leaving this work to them, which 
indeed they wish them so to do." 

I cannot help remarking that the inference which the learned Doc- 
tor was led to deduce from the evil complained of, was scarcely war- 
ranted by the premises. Why, because choirs of singers were found to 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, D., F. A. S. 



135 



be productive of mischievous results to the church of Christ, he 
should doubt whether "public singing made any essential part of 
the worship of God," I do not clearly comprehend.. The question 
is surely not to be decided by its being liable to abuse, but whether 
it be of divine command and apostolic precept. If its being liable 
to abuse should be sustained as a valid objection to its making an 
essential part of the worship of God, it would equally set aside both 
prayer and preaching ; for who can deny that each of these is liable 
to be abused, and that they very often are perverted to ends widely 
different from divine appointment. That public singing has formed 
an essential part of the worship of God under every dispensation 
of religion is a point capable of the clearest proof, and the holy 
scriptures abound with many earnest calls to the people of God to 
that delightful exercise. It formed an integral part of the worship of 
the Jewish church, and in the Book of Psalms we are furnished 
with the example and matter of her songs. Under the New Testa- 
ment, the grounds of joy and thankfulness are greatly enlarged; 
for now God hath performed the mercy promised to the fathers, 
and the promised seed has appeared in whom all nations are blessed. 
That public singing formed a part of the worship of the churches 
planted under the direction of the inspired apostles cannot reason- 
ably be questioned. It is enumerated among the stated observan- 
ces of the church at Jerusalem, Acts, ii. 47. and the apostle Paul 
enjoined upon them a continuance in that delightful exercise long 
after its first institution, Heb. xiii. 15. By him [Christ Jesus] 
let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, tliat is, the 
fruit of our lips^ giving thanks to his name." And they are directecl 
to perform this duty in songs, " Let the word of Christ dwell in 
you richly in all wisdom ; teaching and admonishing one another 
in psalms and hymns, and spritual songs^ singing with grace in your 
hearts to the Lord," Col. iii. 16. And again; "Be filled with the 
Spirit ; speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual 
songs, singing and making melody in your heeats to the Lord : 
giving thanks always, for all things, unto God and the Father, in 
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ," Eph. v. 18, 20. That choir 
singing is a gross perversion and vile abuse of this divine institution 
is readily conceded ; it owes its origin to the corruptions of Chris- 



At^O MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MIiM»rRV, AND WRITINGS, 

tianity, the inventions of Antichrist, and is a remnant of Popery ; 
and in proportion as the primitive profession of Christianity is 
revived it must be abandoned 

During the year that Mr. Clarke was stationed at Plymouth 
Dock, few incidents occurred that are worthy of record. Methodism 
prospered considerably, and he had the felicity of augmenting the 
number of his friends, among whom was Mr. Mason, whom he re- 
vered for his upright, orderly, and consistent conduct, which 
furnished lessons of great importance. Mr. Clarke published a 
concise account of his character,in the year 1810, which he drew up 
at the request of the conference, held in London in 1810, and which 
has subsequently gone through five editions, in a small work entitled 
" A Letter to a Preacher : " the following is an extract from it. 

" Mr. Mason made it the study of his life to maintain his charac- 
ter as a preacher, a Chi'istiau, and a man ; which he did by culti- 
vating his mind in every branch of useful knowledge within his 
Teach, and his profiting was great. In the history^ of the world 
and the church he was very extensively read. With anatomy 
and medicine he was ivell acquainted, and his knowledge of 
natural history, particularly of Botany, was very extensive ; so 
much so, that in the latter science he was inferior to few in the 
British Empire. His botanical collections would do credit to the 
first Museums in Europe, and especially his collections of English 
plants, all gathered, preserved, classified, and described, by his own 
hand. But this was his least praise; he laid all his attainments 
in the natural sciences, under contribution to his theological studies ; 
nor could it ever be said that he neglected his duty as a Christian 
minister, to cultivate his mind in philosophical pursuits. — He was a 
Christian man; and his life and spirit adorned the doctrine of God 
his Saviour. The decency, propriety, and dignity of his conduct 
were, through the whole of his life, truly exemplarj\ His piety 
towards God, and his benevolence to man were as deep as they 
were sincere. He died, April 27th, 1810, aged seventy-eight years, 
and was interred at West Meon, in Hampshire, which had been tlie 
place of his residence for several years prior to his death. 

As the time of Conference drew nigh, there was a strong 
and genei-al desire in the societies, to have Mr. Clarke appointed 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARICE, LL. D., F. A. S. 137 

a second year for the Plymouth Dock circuit ; but while matters 
were progressing in a favourable way, a gentleman of the name of 
Brackenbury, who Iiad long been a member of the Methodist 
society, and ranked among its preachers, having taken up his 
residence in the island of Jersey, where he had commenced preach- 
ing, applied to Mr. Wesley for one to assist him, as there appeared 
a prospect of success. As Mr. Clarke had some knowledge of the 
French language, a patois of which is spoken in that and the adja- 
cent islands, he was appointed to labour in that circuit, and ordered 
by Mir. Wesley to hold himself in readiness to sail with Mr. Brack- 
enbury, as soon as the latter could settle his affairs at Raithby, in 
Lincolnshire, and this admitted of an absence, on the part of Mr. 
Clarke, for three months. 

During this interval, Mr. Clarke availed himself of the opportu- 
nity of paying a visit to his brother, surgeon Clarke, then settled 
at Maghull, near Liverpool. After this, he returned from Liver- 
pool, by the way of Bristol, which seems to have been done in 
order to give him an opportunity of visiting an object very dear to 
his heart, namely a Miss Mary Cooke, of Trowbridge, in Wiltshire, 
to whom he had been fondly attached from the time he was labour- 
ing on the Bradford circuit. But of this amiable female, who at- 
tracted her magnetic influence on the heart of Mr. Clarke, we shall 
have occasion to speak more particularly hereafter. 

Having spent several days at Trowbridge, Mr. Clarke proceeded 
to Southampton with the view of joining Mr. Brackenbury, agree- 
able to appointment; but the affairs of the latter detained him in 
Lincolnshire, a fortnight longer than was expected ; and during 
this interval, he made excursions to Winchester, where he preached 
frequently, and spent much of his time in visiting the cathedral, 
examining the monuments, and committing to writing such reflec- 
tions as the subjects suggested to him. The following, written 
between the llth and 19th of October, 1786, may serve as a 
specimen. 

On Earthly Glory. 

" How little is wordly grandeur worth, together with all the most 
splendid distinctions, which great and pompous titles, or even im- 

T 



138 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

portant offices confer upon men ! They vanish as a dissipated 
vapour, and the proprietors of them go their way ; and where are 
they, or of what account ? Death is the common lot of all — and 
the bones of the great, and the abjectness of the mean, are equally 
unseen in the tomb. This I have seen abundantly exemplified to- 
day, while viewing the remains of several kings, Saxon and English, 
whose very names, much less their persons and importance are with 
difficulty to be collected from ' rosy dampes, mouldy shrines, dust, 
and cobwebs.' This exhibits a proper estimate of human glory, 
and verifies the saying of the wise man, — ' A living dog is better 
than a dead lion.' The meanest living slave is preferable to all 
these dead potentates. Is there any true greatness but that of the 
soul ? And has the soul any true nobility, unless it is begotten 
from above, and has the Spirit and love of Christ to actuate it ? 
Surely not I The title of servant of the Lord Jesus, I prefer to 
the glory of these kings : this will stand me in-stead, when the other 
with all its importance, is eternally forgotten. 

"In the times of the civil wars, the tombs of several of our kings, 
who were buried in this cathedral, were broken up and rifled, and 
the bones scattered about indiscriminately. After the Restoration, 
these were collected, and deposited in large chests, which are 
placed in different parts of the cathedral, and labelled as contain- 
ing bones of our ancient kings, but which could not be discrimi- 
nated." 

The following singular inscription Mr. Clarke copied from the 
vail of this cathedral : — 

" The Union of two brothers from Avington." 

" The Clerks' family were grandfather, father and son, suc- 
cessively Clerks of the Privy Seal. 

William, the grandfather, had two sons, both Thomas's j their 
wives both Amy's; their heirs both Henry's; and the heirs of 
Henry's, both Thomas's ; both their wives were inheritrixes ; and 
both had two sons and one daughter; and both their daughters 
issueless. Both of Oxford ; both of the Temple ; both officers of 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. p., F. A. S. 139 

Queen Elizabeth and our noble King James. Both Justices of the 
Peace together. Both agree in arms, the one a knight, the other a 
captain. 

* Si quaeras Avingtonium petus cancellum impensis.' 

' Thomas Clerk, of Hyde, 1623.' 

" It is not an uncommon case that the things least worthy of com- 
memoration are recorded, while those of the utmost importance are 
forgotten. Had these two brothers lived and died in the favour of 
God, and left a clear testimony of his pardoning and sanctifying 
grace behind them, I doubt, however important the matter, whether 
it would have been thought worthy of record. Yet the above in- 
scription is curious, and deserves to be registered on account of its 
singular and striking coincidences." 

The Progress of Revelation. 

" Why," it may be asked, " has God observed so slow a climax, 
in promulgating the necessary knowledge of his will, in giving to 
mankind, that which so nearly interests them ? For instance, com- 
municating a little under the Patriarchal, an increase under the 
Mosaic, and the fulness of the blessing under the Gospel Dispensa- 
tion ? He could have communicated the whole unto Adam, or 
Noah, or Abraham, or any other of the ante or /?05f-diluvian 
Fathers ; but that this would not have so effectually answered the 
Divine purpose, may be safely asserted. 

" God, like his instrument Nature, delights in progression ; and 
although the works of both were, in semine, finished from the be- 
ginning, nevertheless, they are not brought forward to actual and 
complete existence, but by various accretions. And this appears 
to be done that the blessings resulting from both may be properly 
valued, as in their approach, men have time to discover their 
necessities ; and when relieved after a thorough consciousness of 
their urgency, they see and feel the propriety of being grateful to 
their Kind Benefactor. 

'* Were God to bestow his blessings before the want of them 
were truly felt, men could not be properly grateful for the recep- 
tion of blessings, the value of which they had not known by pr«- 



I'iiO MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MlNIStRY, AND WRITINGS, 

viously feeling the want of them. God gives his blessings that 
they may be duly esteemed, and He himself become the sole 
object of our dependence ; and this end he secures by a gradual 
communication of his bounties as they are felt to be necessary. To 
give them all at once would defeat his own intention, and leave us 
unconscious of our dependence on him, and of the debt which we 
owe to his grace. He, therefore, brings forward his various dis- 
pensations of mercy and love, as he sees men prepared to receive 
and value them ; and as the receipt of the grace of one dispensa- 
tion, makes way for another, and the soul is thereby rendered 
capable of more extended views and communications ; so the 
Divine Being causes every succeeding dispensation to exceed that 
which preceded it. On this ground we find a climax of dispensa- 
tions and in each a gradual scale of light, life, power, and 
holiness. 

" Thus, we first teach our children the power of letters ; then to 
combine consonants and vowels to make syllables ; then to unite 
syllables in order to make words ; then to assort and connect tlie 
different kinds of words, in order to form language or regular dis- 
cburse. To require them to attempt the latter, before they had 
studied the former, would be absurd. The first step leads to, and 
qualifies for the second ; and the second for the third, and so on. 
Thus God deals with the universe, and thus he deals with every 
individual ; every communication from God is a kind of seed, 
which, if properly cultivated, brings forth much fruit. ' Light is 
sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.'" 

Are Natural Evils the Effect of Inevitable Necessity ? 

" Most men cbmplam of difficulties and disappointments in life ; 
not only the irreligious and profane, but those also who have a 
measure of the fear of God. The former repine and murmur, 
taxing the Divine Being with his ungracious carriage towards 
them : the latter, supposing these evils to be inevitable from the 
present constitution of things, endeavour to bear them with resig- 
nation. It cannot be denied that there are many evils which are 
the necessary effects of physical causes ; but we cannot allow that 
all the evils that exist are of this kind. 



OF THE REV, ADAM CLARKE, Lt.. D., F. A. S. 



141 



"If men would act accordiiig- to the Divine Will, few of Ihe evils 
which are now so miserably felt would be known. By acting con- 
trary to the Divine counsel, we jiierce ourselves through with 
many sorrows, and often provoke God by our rebellion, to use the 
scheme of Providence in opposition to us, which would have 
wrought together with his grace for our good, had we submitted 
ourselves to his directions. 

" Most of the diseases with which men are affected, are the con- 
sequence either of their indolence or intemperance, or the indul- 
gence of disorderly passions ; and a principal part of the poverty 
that is in the world, comes in the same way. When, therefore, we 
see so many suffer in consequence of their frowardness and wicked- 
ness, we must acknowledge there are fewer inevitable evils in the 
world than is generally imagined ; and that if men would simply 
walk according to the doctiiiies of God's Holy Word, they would 
necessarily avoid all that numerous train of evils which spring 
from indolence, intemperance, and disorderly passions ; and their 
path would be like that of the rising light — shining more and 
more unto the perfect day. 

" Add to this, there are some who will be continually contriving 
for themselves, and will not be contented unless every thing be in 
their own way, and according to what they suppose to be right and 
proper : these suffer much. There are others who take God at his 
word, follow Jesus wheresoever he goeth, and leave themselves and 
all their affairs entirely to His disposal, well knowing Thou canst 
not err ; and ever saying, W ? will not choose : these suffer little. 
Th^ former, if they get to glory, are saved as by fire, and just 
escape everlasting burnings. The latter mount up with wings as 
the eagle ; they walk and are not weary ; they run and are not 
faint. They live comfortably, die triumphantly, and have an 
abundant entrance administered to them into eternal glory. In the 
former, the whole face of the gospel is beclouded and disfigured : in 
the latter it is magnified, made honourable, and recommended to 
all. My soul, choose thou the latter, for it is the better part." 

I select these essays as a specimen of Mr. Clarke's talent in 
composition at thivs early period of his ministry j as well as, of the 



142 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND -VVRITINOS, 

manner in which he was accustomed to note down what occurred 
to him on subjects tliat he deemed important; but they will 

scarcely bear to be touched with the rude hand of criticism, either 
as regards composition or sentiment; and tlie application of several 
texts of Scripture, so foreign to the connexion in whicli they are to 
be found in the Bible, and the use there made of them, can only be 
excused in a tyro, or one who is beginning to look into the volume 
of inspiration for the first time. Mr. Clarke soon left off writiiiir 
essays after this sort, and as his relig-ious correspondence increased, 
he was accustomed to transfer to his letters wliat would otherwise 
have been noted down in his common-place book. Of these letters, 
however, he preserved no copies, except in a very few instances ; 
for he candidly confesses that he had no opinion of tlieir excellence, 
being for the most part hastily wi-itten, witli little premeditation, 
and consequently must be very imperfect : on which account he 
has often been heard to say, I hope none of my friends will ever 
publish any of the lettei's I have written to them, after my decease^ 
I never wrote one, in my various and long correspondence, for the 
public eye ; and I am sure that not one of these letters would be 
fit for that eye, unless it passed tlirough my own revisal." 

It appears, however, that the family are \ev\ diffei*ently minded 
on the subject ; for, already do we see announced for publication, 
by his sons, A Volume of Original Letters, by the late Dr. Adam 
Clarke !"' This can hardly be considered as carrying his will into 
effect ; and it is to be hoped that those who are entrusted with the 
guardianship of his reputation, and are acting so contrary to the 
spirit of the above-quoted injunction, have found a codicil to that 
Will, of such a tenor as will indemnify them for actincr so contrary 
to its spuit ; and also to the import of the following paragraph 
written by Dr. Clarke himself, in reference to this matter : — 

Many eminent men have had their literary- reputation tarnished 
bv this injudicious procedure of their friends. They generally 
gather every scrap of written paper tliat bears evidence of the hand 
of the deceased, and without reflection or discernment, give to the 
public what was of no profit to any except to the bookseller. How 
much have Pope and Swift suftered from this! and perhaps no man 
more than the late truly apostolic man, the Rev. J. Fktcher, of 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 143 



Madeley. If ever his tree bore leaves instead of fruit, it was in liis 
religious correspondence; and these leafy productions, to the great 
discredit of his good sense, have been published with a sinful 
cupidity, over the religious world. From this circumstance, a 
stranger to liis person has said, * Were I to judge of Mr. Fletcher 
by his letters, and some other little matters, published by his friends 
since his death, I must pronounce him a well-meaning, weak en- 
thusiast. Were I to judge of him by the works published by him- 
self, I must pronounce him the first polemical writer this or any 
other age has produced : a man mighty in the Scriptures, and full 
of the unction of God.'" 

That the ill-judged partiality of friends has often done more 
injury to the memory of an author than all the malice of his 
enemies, has been frequently said, and requires to be reiterated, to 
keep posterity in mind of the melancholy fact. In the present 
instance, however, we may safely confide it to the good sense of 
Dr. Clarke's sons, to take care that his fair fame suflfers no detri- 
ment from any posthumous pieces that may issue from the press 
under their superintendance and controul. 



SECTION VIII. 

Mr. Clarke s residence in the islands of Guernsey, Jersey, ^c. — he 
resumes and prosecutes his classical studies — and enters into the 
marriage state, A.. It. 1786—7 — 8. 

The Norman Isles, in which Mr. Clarke was appointed by Mr. 
Wesley to prosecute his labours, at the last conference, lie chiefly 
in what is called the bay of St. Malos, and comprise Guernsey, 
Jersey, Aldemey, Sark, Jethou, and Herme. They formerly be- 
longed to Normandy, but are now an appendage to the crown of 
England, and have been so for the most part, since the conquest of 
this country by William the first, a.d. 1066. Pursuant to appoint- 
ment, Mr. Clarke and Mr. Brackenbury, met at Southampton, 
where they took a Jersey packet, which conveyed them to St. ' 



l'^4 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

Aubin's Bay, where they landed, on the 26th of October, 1786; and 
on the same evening they walked to Mr. Brackenbury's house iii 
St. Hillier's, the principal town in the island. Having preached a 
few times in St. Hilliers, where the English language is known to * 
most of the inhabitants, it was agreed that he should proceed to the 
island of Guernsey, and there prosecute his ministry, while Mr* 
Brackenbury should, for the present, remain in Jersey. This was 
accordingly carried into effect, and taking up his abode at St. Peters, 
where the English language is as well known as at St Hilliers, he 
procured a large warehouse called Les TVrm", a little out of the 
town, in which he began to preach. In a little time he obtained 
permission to preach in several private houses in the town, in 
which he was able to have public worship both morning and even- 
ing through the principal part of the year. 

Mr. Clarke's present station was a very different; sphere of action 
from what he had been accustomed to in England. He had no 
extensive circuit to visit, which required his journeying On horse- 
back for weeks, though he occasionally went from island to island 
to plant the standard of the cross ; but finding himself in a great 
measure secluded from religious and literary acquaintances, he 
became impelled, in a measure, to turn his attention to the cultiva- 
tion of his mind. His Greek and Latin had for years been laid un- 
der an interdict by a rash vow, which, however, reflection and the 
advice of friends had led him to see the folly of; and consequently 
he had formed the resolution of breaking through it. He therefore 
resumed the use of his grammars and began his studies anew. 
Having refreshed his memory with these elementary treatises, he 
took up the first volume of Grabe s Septuagint, chiefly with the 
view of examining how far it differed from the Hebrew Text, of 
which he had gained considerable knowledge by the studies formerly 
mentioned. At first he found he had nearly every thing to learn ; 
for through long disuse he had forgotten almost all his Greek; 
but after a little fagging, he conquered the principal difficulties^ 
and experienced in his new studies not only pleasure but profit. 
In frequent instances, he found the Septuagint cast much light on 
the Hebrew text, and saw plainly, that without the help of this 
ancient version, it would have been next to impossible to gain any 



OF THE RKV. ADAM CLARKE, LL.D., F.A.S. 145 

proper knowledge of the Hebrew Bible ; " the Hebrew language being 
all lost, except what remains in the Pentateuch, prophetical writings, 
and some of the historical books of the Bible. For, the whole of 
the Old Testament is not in Hebrew ; several parts, both of Ezra 
and Daniel being in the Chaldee language, besides one verse in 
the prophet Jeremiah, viz. ch. x. 11. The Septuagint version 
being made at a time when the Hebrew was vernacular, about 285 
years before Christ, and when the Greek language was well known 
to the learned among the Jews : — the translators of this version 
had advantages which we do not now possess, and which never 
again can be possessed by man ; we must consequently have re- 
course to them for the meaning of a multitude of Hebrew words 
which we can have in no other way. And as to the outcry against 
this Version, it appears to be made by those who do not under- 
stand the question, and are but slenderly acquainted with the 
circumstances of the case. The many readings in this Version 
which are not to be found in the Hebrew text, we should be cau- 
tious how we charge as forgeries ; the translators most probably 
followed copies, much more correct than those now extant, and 
which contained those readings which we now charge on the Sep- 
tuagint as arbitrary variations from the Hebrew verity. Indeed 
several of these very readings have been confirmed by the collations 
of Hebrew manuscripts, made by Dr. Kennicott at home and De 
Rossi abroad. 

Mr. Clarke prosecuted these studies till he had read the Septua- 
gint through to the end of the book of Psalms, generally noting 
down the most important differences between this version and the 
Hebrew text, entering them in the margin of a quarto Bible in 
three volumes, which he had afterwards the misfortune to lose. 
At this time his stock of books was very small, and having no 
living teacher, he laboured under many disadvantages. But when, 
in the course of his changing for the alternate supply of the 
societies in the islands, he visited Jersey, he obtained much assist- 
ance from the public library in St. Hilliers. This contained a 
la;rge collection of excellent books, which was bequeathed for 
public use by the Rev. Philip Falle, one of the ministers of the 
island, and its most correct historian. 

U 



^46 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

It was in the public library of St. Hilliers, that Mr. Clarke for 
the first time met with Walton's Polyglott Bible, so as to avail 
himself of the use of it. The Prolegomena to vol. i. became a 
particular object of his study, and the account there given of the 
ancient versions, more especially the Oriental, tended to convince 
him that some acquaintance with the Syriac and Chaldee, would 
be of great use to him in his biblical researches. From Prideaux's 
Connections he had already obtained a pretty accurate view of the 
Chaldee version, or Targums of Onkelos on the Law, and Jonathan 
Ben Uzziel on the Prophets. To read the Samaritan Penta- 
teuch, he had only to learn the Samaritan alphabet ; the Hebrew 
text and the Samaritan being exactly the same as to language, 
though the latter preserves a much fuller account of the different 
transactions recorded by Moses ; writes the words more fully, giving 
the essential vowels, which in many places are supplied in the 
Hebrew text only by the Masoretic points ; and, moreover, this 
text contains many important variations in the chronology. The 
Samaritan version, which was made from this, is in the same 
character, contains the same matter, but is in a different dialect, 
not to say language. It is Chaldee in its basis, with the admix- 
ture of many words, supposed to be of Cuthic origin, 

Mr. Clarke now met with a copy of Bishop Walton's Introduc- 
tion to the Oriental languages, by the help of which he was enabled 
to prosecute the study of the Syriac with good effect. Being 
drawn up in Latin, he translated and wrote out the whole of this 
little manual into English, enlarging it subsequently from Leus- 
den's Schola Syriaca. He could now consult any text in the 
Syriac version ; and thus the use of the Polyglott became much 
more extensive to him. Henceforth all his leisure hours were 
spent in the public library of St. Hilliers, reading and collating the 
original texts in the Polyglott, particularly the Hebrew, Samaritan, 
Chaldee, Syriac, Vulgate, and Septuagint. The Arabic, Persian, 
and Ethiopic, he did not attempt, for he despaired of making any 
advance in the acquisition of those languages, without a preceptor. 

A remarkable interposition of Providence occurred about this 
period of time, which Dr. Clarke thus relates in the account of his 
own life. Knowing that he could not always enjoy the benefit of 



OF THt REV ADAM CLARKE, LL.D., F.A.S. 14? 

the Polyglott in the public library, though fortunately for him bis 
residence in the Norman Isles was prolonged to three years, he 
began earaestiy to wish that he might become possessed of a copy 
of his own : but a stipend of three pounds per quarter and his food, 
which was the sum total of his income as a preachei, could ill 
supply any sum for the purchase of books. 

Convinced that it was the will of God he should cultivate his 
mind in the attainment of useful knowledge, and that of the Holy 
Scriptures in particular, both on his own account, and also for the 
pi'ofit of those among whom his lot was cast ; and convinced that 
to him an acquaintance with the original texts was important for 
this purpose : finding, moreover, that he was not likely to possess 
money sufiicient to make such a purchase, he entertained an idea 
that the Lord would so order events in his providence, that by 
some means or other he should get a Polyglott presented to him. 
One morning, a preacher's wife who lodged in the same family 
that he did, told him that she had dreamed the preceding night, 
some person had made him a present of a Polyglott Bible. He 
answered, " That I shall get a Polyglott soon, I have no doubt, 
but how, or by whom, I know not." In the course of a day or 
tMso he received a letter, enclosing him a bank-note of ten pounds, 
from a person from whom he had no expectation of receiving any 
thing of the kind. He immediately exclaimed, " Here is the Poly- 
glott !" Mr. Clarke now wrote to a friend in London who pro- 
cured him a tolerably good copy of Walton's Polyglott, for the 
exact sum— ten pounds ! He had obtained his Hebrew Grammar, 
"while at Kingswood school, in an equally singular manner. Dig- 
ging one day in the garden, he turned over a lump of earth, out of 
which flew a half guinea piece of gold. He instantly took it to 
Mr. Simpson, the master of the academy, telling him how he 
became possessed of it, and requesting him to take charge of it. 
Mr. S. declined doing so, adding that he had no grounds to think 
it belonged to him. An inquiry was then set on foot in the school, 
whether any person had recently lost such a piece of money, and 
one of the teachers said that he had done so, but he could not 
identify it, and therefore would not take it. Mr. Simpson was next 
requested to add it to the funds of the institution, which he de- 



148 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

clined to do, and poor Adam, whose bank stock it will be recol- 
lected was at the time reduced to three half-pence, was compelled 
to keep the half guinea ! But it enabled him to become a sub- 
scriber to Mr. Bayley's Hebrew Grammar, as formerly mentioned, 
which he could not otherwise have done. These two Providential 
circumstances were the only foundation of all the knowledge he 
afterwards acquired either in the Oriental learning or Biblical 
literature. In the manner of obtaining both these works. Dr. 
Clarke recognized the hand of God ; and it became a powerful in- 
ducement to him to give all diligence to acquire, and fidelity to 
use that knowledge which came to him through means utterly out 
of his own reach, and so distinctly marked to his apprehension by 
the special providence of God. 

During the thi'ee years that Mr. Clarke was stationed on this 
circuit, he met with considerable opposition from that part of the 
population whose eternal interests he was labouring to secure. 
One Lord's day morning, accompanied by two naval officers, he 
went to preach at La Valle, a low part of the island of Guernsey, a 
spot which was always surrounded by the sea at high water, and 
to which at such times there is no access but by means of a sort of 
causeway, called the bridge. On this occasion, a number of unruly 
people got together, with drums, horns, and offensive weapons, 
taking their station at the bridge to prevent his access to the islet. 
The tide being a little out, he ventured to ride across about a mile 
below the bridge, without being noticed by the mob, by which 
means he got to the house and had nearly finished his sermon 
before it was known that he had arrived. At length, however, 
they came in full power and with fell purpose. The captain of a 
man-of-war and a naval lieutenant, with another gentleman who 
had accompanied them, mounted their horses and instantly rode off 
at full gallop, leaving Mr. Clarke in the hands of the mob. The 
latter, to prevent his escape, cut the horse s bridle. But, no way 
intimidated, he went among them, and getting upon an eminence, 
proceeded to make a speech. The drums and horns instantly 
ceased ; the greater part of the mob became quiet and peaceable, 
only a few from the outskirts assailing him with missiles, which he 
dexterously evaded by various inclinations of the head and body a« 



or THE ilEV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



149 



ho saw them approach, so that he escaped all hurt; and after, 
al oiit an hour, they gave him leave to mend his bridle and 
peaceably to depart. On reaching home, he had the gratification 
of finding his naval heroes in perfect safety, having adopted the old 
proverb : — 

*' He that fights and runs away, 
May live to fight another day." 

He had a more narrow escape for his life one evening at St. 
Aubin, in the island of Jersey. A reckless mob, consisting of 
some hundreds, armed with almost every instrument of destruction^ 
assembled round the house in which he was preaching — it was a 
wooden building, lighted by five windows. At their first approach, 
the main part of the audience issued forth and provided for their 
own safety. Such as were in the Society, about thirteen in number, 
alone remained with the preacher. The mob finding that all with 
whom they might claim kindred had made their escape, formed 
the desperate resolution to pull down the house, and bury the 
preacher and his friends in the ruins ! Mr. Clarke continued to 
address the people, exhorting them to place their confidence in that 
God who was able to save. One of the mob presented a pistol to 
him through the window opposite to the pulpit, which twice 
flashed in the pan ! Others had brought crow-bars, with which 
they were employed in sapping the foundation of the house. Per- 
ceiving this, Mr. Clarke said to his friends, " If we stay here, we 
shall all be destroyed ; I will go out among them ; they seek not 
you but me ; when they have got me, they will allow you to retire 
unmolested." His friends besought him with tears not to leave the 
place, as he would be infallibly murdered. Seeing there was no 
time to be lost, as they continued to undermine the building, he 
said, *' I will instantly go out among them in the name of the 
Lord." And Je vous accompagnerai, " I will accompany you," ex- 
claimed a stout young man. As the house was assailed with a 
volley of stones, he met a shower of these as he opened the door 
and passed through it. It was a clear full moon night, the clouds 
'laving dispersed after a previously heavy storm of hail and rain. 
He advanced forward—the mob divided to the right and left, and 



150 iM£M(3iR.S OF IHE LIVE, MINISTRY, AND VVRITKNGS, 



UlciGle an ample passage for him and th:' young' man who followed 
him ; and this they did to the very utmost skirts of the hundreds 
who were congregated together with drums, horns, fifes, spades, 
forks, bludgeons, &ic., for the diabolical purpose of taking away the 
life of a man whose only crime was that of preaching salvation to 
lost and perishing sinners through the blood of the cross. During 
the whole time of his passing through the mob, a death-like silence 
prevailed, nor was there any movement except what was necessary 
to give him a free passage. Either their eyes were holden that 
they could not know him, or they were so overawed by the power 
of God, that they could not lift a hand, or utter a word against 
him. The poor people finding all was quiet, came out a little 
alter and passed away, not one of them being either hurt or mo- 
lested ! In a few minutes the mob seemed to " awake as from a 
(heam," and finding that the prey had been plucked from their 
teeth, they knew not how, they attacked the building afresh, broke 
every square of glass in all the windows, and scarcely left a whole 
tile upon the roof. Mr. Clarke afterwards learnt that the design of 
the mob was to seize his person, and throw him into the sluice of 
an overshot water mill, which had they effected, he must inevitably 
hcive been crushed to pieces. 

On the following Lord's day he proceeded to the same place ; 
the mob rose again ; and when they began to make a tumult, he 
called on them to hear him only for a few moments. Those who 
appeared to have most influence became silent and checked the rest. 
He then addressed them as follows : " I have never done any one 
of you the least harm : — on the contrary the nearest wish of my 
heart is to do you good. I could tell you what would make you 
wise unto salvation, would you but listen to me. Why do you 
persecute a man who never can be your enemy, and wishes to shew 
that he is your friend. You cannot be Christians, or you would 
not seek to destroy a man because he tells you the truth. But are 
you even men ? Do you deserve that name ? I am but a solitary 
individual and unarmed, yet scores and hundreds of you are banded 
together to attack and destroy this single unarmed man ! Is not 
this to act like cowards and assassins ? I am a man and a Christian. 
As fX man I fear none of you, and would not turn my back upon 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 151 

tlie best of you — I could probably put the best of you under my 
f' \ t. The apostle Paul was assailed in like manner by the heathens 
— they also were dastards and cowards.. The scripture does not 
call them men, but, according to our English translation, * certain 
lewd fellows of the baser sort* — or according to your own, which 
you better understand, Les battours de pave — La Canaille. O shame 
on you to come in multitudes, to attack an inoffensive stranger in 
your island, who comes only to call you from wickedness to serve 
the living God, and to shew you the way which will at last lead 
you to everlasting blessedness 1 " He then paused — presently there 
was a shout. " He's a clever fellow — he shall preach, and we will 
hear him." They were as good as their word ; he proceeded with- 
out any further molestation from them, and he never afterwards 
received any opposition from them. 

Some weeks after this, the little preaching house being nearly 
destroyed, Mr. Clarke attempted to preach out of doors. The mob 
had given up the cause of persecution, it is true ; but the devil 
now stirred up the magistrates of St. Aubin to take up the business ; 
and one of them came to the place with a mob of his own, accom- 
panied by the drummer of the regiment. While Mr. Clarke was 
engaged in prayer he was pulled down and delivered into the hands 
of the canaille (the rabble) of which this magistrate was the head. 
The drummer attended him out of the town, beating the rogue's 
n J arch on his drum, and striking him frequently with the drum 
sticks : from the ill usage which he thus received he did not re- 
cover for weeks. But by perseverance he wearied out all his per- 
si^cutors ; — there were several who heard the word gladly ; and for 
their sakes he freely ventured himself till at last all opposition 
totally ceased. 

Mr. Clarke had subsequently another escape, of a somewhat 
diiferent kind which is worth recording. The winter of the year 
1788 was unusually 'severe in the Norman islands, as well as in 
most other countries. Snow fell in such abundance that the drifts 
became almost impassable, and travelling was extremely danger- 
ous. In the month of January, he was appointed to preach one 
evening at St. Aubin. — He proceeded thither in company with the 
same younj^ man who had courageously followed him out of th« 



152 MEMOI :S OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS 

meeting house, when he so miraculously escaped from the mob ; 
but the heavy fall of snow obliged them to follow the sea-mark all 
the way along the bay of St. Aubin. When they arrived at the 
town, he was nearly benumbed with cold and fatigue. He preached, 
but found himself greatly exhausted. He was nevertheless obliged 
to return that same evening to St. Hilliers — a distance of between 
four and five miles. Much snow had fallen during the time of 
public worship, and the night became worse and worse. He set 
out, accompanied by his friend, without having any refreshment, 
and began to plod his way with faint and unsteady steps. At 
length a drowsiness came upon him — a common effect of intense 
cold when the principle of heat is almost entirely abstracted. 
Finding himself incapable of proceeding he thus addressed his com- 
panion. " Frank ! I can proceed no further till I have got a little 
sleep — let me lie down a few minutes on one of these snow-drifts, 
and then I shall get strength to go on 1 " Happily his friend was 
aware of the consequence, and therefore expostulated — " 0 no. Sir, 
you must on no account give place to this — were you to lie down 
but one minute you would never rise more ! Don't fear — ^hold by 
me, and I will cb'ag you on — we shall soon get to St. Hilliers." 
Totally exhausted with fatigue, and benumbed with cold, Mr. 
Clarke expostulated — " Frank I cannot proceed, I am only sleepy, 
and even two minutes will refresh me" — and he attempted to throw 
himself upon a drift of snow, which appeared to him to have higher 
charms than the finest bed of down. His companion was now 
obliged to interpose his authority — ^he forcibly pulled him up, and 
continued dragging and encouraging him, till with great labour and 
difficulty he brought him to St. Hilliers. 

Few people now need to be apprised that intense cold, long 
continued, has a powerful tendency to debilitate the whole nervous 
system. The consequence is a torpor of the whole animal functions — 
the action of the muscles becomes feeble and scarcely obedient to 
the will — an unconquerable languor and indisposition to motion 
succeeds ; and a gradual exhaustion of the nervous power shews 
itself in di'owsiness, which terminates in sleep, from which the 
person, if not speedily aroused, awakes no more. This was pre- 
cisely Mr. Clarke's state at the time just mentioned ^ and had not 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. F. A. S. 



153 



bis friend been resolute as well as strong— had he allowed him to 
lie down in his then benumbed and exhausted state, he would have 
slept the sleep of death in a less space of time than five minutes ! 

This is an extremely curious subject; and it is also one that 
leads to such important pratical results, particularly in what relates 
to the preservation of human life, that a trifling digression may be 
pardonable for the purpose of introducing a few remarks. 

It is often disputed whether cold has any actual existence, or 
should be considered as merely the privation of heat ; and tlie 
dispute can be traced back as far as the days of Plutarch, wl>o 
lived eighteen hundred years ago. We find him discussing it, in a 
Tract entitled De primo frigido, and the reasonings he employs, 
though vague, are certainly curious. He tells us that cold aflfects 
the senses as well as heat; and that it is not less active, since it 
condenses and consolidates bodies. He therefore inclines to tlie 
opinion, that cold is a distinct, and independent power in nature. 
In common with the Stoic philosophers, to which sect he inclined 
to belong, he regards it as by its constitution cold and dark ; and 
hence water drawn from a well freezes on being exposed to the at- 
mosphere, while rivers, overshaded by high banks seldom freeze, and 
even where their surface congeals, the heat is not exhaled, but only 
driven down nearer the bottom. 

Such was the popular theory in Plutarch's days : the ablest 
philosophers of the present day, tell us it is contrary to sound 
Physics to admit more principles than are indispensably required, 
which argument alone, say they, may be sufiicient for the rejection 
of cold as a distinct power or principle in nature. What we term 
cold, in reference to our feelings, is merely the diminution of heat. 
But the existence and materiality of heat rest on a very different 
foundation. The diminution of heat, or the increase of cold, is 
produced in nature, under four different circumstance : I. By the 
obliquity or absence of the sun. 2. By the tenuity of the higher 
atmosphere. 3. By the evaporation which takes place in dry air ; 
and, 4. By the chilling impression shot downwards from a clear 
and serene sky : In our temperate climates, the thermometer in 
winter very seldom descends 15 degrees on Farenheit's scale, below 
the freezing point. But in the higher latitudes, the intensity of the 

X 



154 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

cold is often greater. In the northern parts of Sweden and Russia, 
the rivers and ordinary lakes are frozen to the depth of several 
feet : wine and even ardent spirits become converted into a spongy 
mass of ice, and, as the cold still augments, it penetrates the living 
forests, and congeals the very sap of the tress, which occasionally 
burst from this internal expansion with tremendous noise. The 
Baltic sea has been repeatedly covered with a solid floor of ice 
capable of transporting whole armies, with all their stores and 
engines of war. In Siberia and Hudson's Bay, and even in the 
northern provinces of Sweden, mercury has been sometimes ob- 
served contracted by exposure into a solid semi-metal ; and con- 
sequently the cold which then prevailed must have exceeded 71 
degrees, or 39 below the commencement of Fahrenheit's scale. 

In elevated tracts the increase of cold is very striking. Even at 
an altitude of three miles and a half, the air is generally 68 degrees 
colder than at the level of the sea. On the summit of the Andes, 
therefore, a thermometer would often sink perhaps under the be- 
ginning of Farenheit's scale ; and it seems probable that the mer- 
cury would naturally freeze in winter on the top of Mont Blanc. 
Mountains are hence regarded as the grand store or depositaries of 
cold in the milder climates. In every countr^^ therefore, the air of 
subterraneous caves, and the water of deep springs or wells, are 
during the summer months comparatively cold. Every reader 
must recollect the account given in Captain Cook's Voyages, of 
what occurred to a party of our countrymen who had accompanied 
that notable expedition, partly on a botanizing excursion, but chiefly 
that they might have an opportunity of observing the transit of the 
planet Venus over the sun's disk, at a moment when it could not 
be seen in this country. The party consisted of eleven persons 
among whom were the late Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander. 
It was in the month of January, 1769, that the expedition having 
anchored oiF the island of Terra del Fuego, the party went on shore 
on a botanizing excursion, and night coming on them impercepti- 
bly, they were compelled to remain on the hills during extreme 
cold. Dr. Solander who had more than once crossed the mountains 
which divide Norway and Sweden, was perfectly aware that extreme 
cold, especially when combined with weariness and fatigue, produ- 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



155 



ces an almost irresistible propensity to sleep ; he therefore gave his 
friends a solemn warning that if they would sui-vive the night they 
must neither sit nor lie down but keep moving, whatever pains it 
might cost them, or however desirable sleep might seem to them. 
" Whoever sits down", said he, " will sleep, and whoever sleeps will 
rise no more ? " This was fair warning, but the sequel shews how 
much more easy it is to give advice than to take it. While the 
party were on the naked rocks, before they could get among tlie 
bushes, the cold became so intense as to produce an almost over- 
whelming sense of torpor and sleepiness. Of this Dr. Solander was 
himself on the eve of becoming the first victim. He was so irresis- 
tibly inclined to sleep, against which he had warned others, that he 
insisted on being allowed to lie down. His companions, particu- 
larly Sir Joseph Banks, entreated and remonstrated with him, but 
it was to no purpose. He sunk upon the rocky earth then covered 
with snow, and they had exivfMne difficulty in preventing him from 
going to sleep. Presently they got him on his legs, and partly by 
persuasion and partly by compulsion, they brought him forwards. 
At length, however, so overpowered was he with stupor and slug- 
gishness that he declared he neither could nor would go any further 
till he had had some sleep. On their resisting him he drew his sword^ 
and threatened to plunge it into the first man that opposed him. 
He lay down and fell into a profound sleep. Some persons who 
had been appointed by the party to proceed forward and endeavour 
if possible to light a fire, happily returned with the gratifying news 
that they had at length succeeded. Dr. Solander was then, with 
no little difficulty awoke, and though he had scarcely slept five 
minutes, he had nearly lost the use of his limbs, the muscles were 
so shrunk, that the shoes fell oflT his feet. Two black servants who 
accompanied the gentlemen unhappily fell victims to the cold : 
they sunk down, could not be awaked, but slept their last ! All 
the rest, on being brought to the fire, recovered. 

While this subject is before us, I crave permission to follow up 
the interesting details now given, by a short extract from our 
countryman Captain Parry's expedition to the North Polar Regions. 
This took place in the year 1819; the Hecla and Griper — the 
former of 375 tons, with a ship's company of fifty-eight men — and 



156 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

the latter, a twelve gun brig of one hundred and eighty tons, uitb 
a ship's company of thirty-six men, sailed from Deptford, on tlie 
4th of May. On the 2nd of August they entered Lancaster sound, 
and before the end of the month, they advanced round the end of 
Byam Martin's Island. On the 4th of September, they crossed the 
Meridian of 110°, thus accomplishing the first portion of the dis- 
covery of the North-West Passage, to which the British government 
had thought proper to attach the reward of a premium of five 
THOUSAND POUNDS ! Persevering in their course, they had on the 
18th of September, advanced beyond Cape Providence, when they 
found themselves beset with difficulties from the heaviness of the 
drifting ice, that it became necessary for the Commanders of the 
expedition to pause and deliberate whether they should return 
home, or seek an asylum for the winter. The latter was not easily 
to be found — and to secure any thing of the kind, they must cut 
a canal in the solid ice, the length of which was to be four thousand 
and eighty-two yards, or two miles and near a half! The latter 
however was determined on — the masts were dismantled, except 
the lower ones, and every preparation was made for going into 
winter quarters — on the 4th of November the sun ceased to emit 
his rays, and our voyagers were left in this dreary exile, with the 
certainty of being deprived of the light of the sun for nearly three 
moHths, and of having only the twilight of an Arctic winter to 
guide them in their amusements and pursuits. The following 
description of the dreariness of external nature in these Polar 
regions is so interesting that I make no apology for inserting it. 

The officers were in the habit of occupying nearly two hours in 
the middle of the day in rambling on shore, even in the darkest 
period, except when a fresh wind and heavy snow-drift confined 
them within the housing of the ships. It may well be imagined 
that at such a period there was but little in their walks on shore 
which could either amuse or interest them. The necessity of 
not exceeding the limited distance of one or two miles, lest 
a snow-drift, which often rose very suddenly, should prevent their 
return, added much to the dull and tedious monotony which day 
after day presented itself. To the southward was the sea, covered 
with one unbroken surface of ice, uniform in its dazzling whiteness. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 15? 

except that in some parts a few hammocks were seen thrown up 
somewhat above the general level. Nor did the land offer much 
gi'eater variety, being almost entirely covered with snow, except 
here and there a brown patch of bare ground in some exposed situ- 
ations where the wind had not allowed the snow to remain. When 
viewed from the summit of the neighbouring hills, on one of those 
calm and clear days which not unfrequently occurred during the 
winter, the scene was such as to induce contemplation, which had 
perhaps more of melancholy than of any other feeling. Not an ob- 
ject was seen on which the eye could rest with pleasure, unless di- 
rected to the spot where the ships lay, and where their little colony 
was planted. The smoke which there issued from the several fires, 
affording a certain indication of the presence of man, gave a partial 
cheerfulness to this part of the prospect ; and the sound of voices, 
which during the cold weather, could be heard at a much greater 
distance than usual, served now and then to break the silence which 
reigned around them — a silence far different from that peaceable 
composure which characterizes the landscape of a cultivated coun- 
try, it was the death-like stillness of the most dreary desolation, 
and the total absence of animated existence. Such indeed was the 
want of objects to afford relief to the eye or amusement to the 
mind, that a stone of more than usual size appearing above the 
snow, in the direction in which they were going, immediately be- 
came a mark on which their eyes were unconsciously fixed, and 
towards which they mechanically advanced. Dreary, however, 
as such a season must necessarily be, it was not wholly devoid of 
interest, especially when associated in the mind with their pecu- 
liar situation, the object which had brought them thither, and the 
hopes which the least sanguine among them sometimes entertained 
of spending a part of their next winter in the more genial climate 
of the South Sea Islands. 

The following incidents will serve to illustrate the effects of cold 
in this climate upon the human frame, which is indeed the main 
object for the sake of which the narrative was introduced. 

The greatest cold experienced by Captain Parry was such as he 
could sustain with tolerable ease in calm weather, and probably 
less inconvenience was experienced by them, than has often been 



158 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



felt in Siberia and Canada. One of the crew of the Griper, who 
had lost his way in a hunting- excursion returned with one of his 
hands severely frost-bitten. At first his whole hand was as hard 
as a piece of marble, but by successful treatment, it so far reco- 
vered that he lost only a part of the four fingers of his left hand. 
Another sailor, who had his hands frost-bitten, came on board in 
such a state, that when his hands were immersed in a tub of cold 
water, for the purpose of being thawed, the cold communicated to 
the water, created a film of ice on its surface. The skin and nails 
came off some of the fingers, and the rest were amputated. One of 
the most remarkable effects, however, was its influence on the men- 
tal as well as corporeal faculties. On the 5th of October, two of 
the gentlemen belonging to the expedition, who had exposed them- 
selves to severe frost in the ardour of pursuing a wounded stag, 
were sent for by Captain Parry. On arriving in his cabin, he 
says, they looked wild, spoke thick and indistinctly, and he found 
It impossible to draw from them a rational answer to any of his 
questions. After being on board for a short time, the mental fa- 
culties appeared gradually to return with the returning circula- 
tion ; and it was not until then that a looker-on could easily per- 
sude himself that they had not been drinking too freely. To those 
who have been accustomed to cold countries this will be no new 
remark : but it is more than probable that many a man has been 
punished for intoxication who was only suffering from the benumb- 
ing effects of cold. I now return from this digression. 

Writing to a friend in Somersetshire, dated January 23rd 1787 
Mr. Clarke says, " Last evening I arrived in safety from Jersey, 
after an absence of only seven days. My voyage has been useful 
both to my body and soul. I met with some deeply experienced 
Christians, compared with whom I am but a very little child. 
An elderly and a young woman are the most remarkable. The 
former seems to possess all the solemnity and majesty of Chris 
tianity. She has gone and is going through acute corporeal suffer- 
ings, but these add to her apparent dignity. Her eyes, and every 
feature of her face, together with her words, are uncommonly ex- 
pressive of tlie word ETERNITY, in that importance in which 
it is considered by those whose minds were devoted to deep reflec- 



OV THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D , F. A. S. 159 

lion. To her, I put myself frequently to school, during niy short 
abode in the island, and could not avoid learning much, unless I 
had been invincibly ignorant or diabolically proud. The latter 
seems possessed of all that cheerful happiness and pure love which 
so abundantly characterize the Gospel of Christ. Peace, meek- 
ness, and joy, judiciously intermingled by the sagacious economy 
of the Holy Spirit constitute a glorious something, affectingly evi- 
dent in all her deportment, which I find myself at a loss to describe. 
Two such, I know not that I have before found : they are indeed 
the rare and the excellent of the earth. A summary of both cha- 
racters seems comprised in this : — of the former it may be truly said, 

* Not grave with sternness,' 

of the latter, 

* Nor with lightness free.' 

'* You are excellent at ideal realization ; I leave you to indulge \ t 
here, in respect of both persons, without being much afraid of its 
running into the excessive." 

Mr. Clarke's exertions during the first winter he resided in 
Guernsey were of the most severe and trying kind, and had well 
nigh brought him to the grave. He seems to have acted as if he 
considered himself to be all sphit, and that his clay tabernacle was 
incapable of injury from climate or fatigue ! Writing to the same 
friend in England under date of April 4th 1787, he thus expresses 
himself. " Being attacked from so many quarters there was little 
prospect of my lingering long, especially as I had been slowly 
wasting for some months before. The people were greatly alarmed 
and proclaimed a day of fasting, prayer and weeping to snatch 
their poor preacher from the grave. Their sorrow caused me to 
feel ; — for myself I could neither weep nor repine ; but I could 
hardly forbear the former on their account. The Doctor on his 
second visit found, that I was severely attacked by the jaundice ; 
and so took the cure of that first in hand ; but withal observed 
that I should not regain my health properly, nor be free from bili- 
ous complaints till I resumed my former method — of riding. 
Through much mercy, I am now greatly mended j my cough is 



160 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

almost entirely removed ; and my doctor has this day informed me 
that my tawny disorder begins to abate. I am now only confined 
to my room, but am very much enfeebled. Indeed, I am little else 
(considered abstractedly from my spirit) than a quantity of bones 
and sinews, wrapt up in none of the best coloured skins. But this 
also has, and will, work together with other providential dispensa- 
tions for my good. When I was almost at the worst, I opened my 
Septuagint at the 91st Psalm, and on the last three verses, which 
are much more emphatical than the English, particularly the mid- 
dle clause of the 15th verse : * I am with him in affliction.' Blessed 
be my God and Saviour, I have found it to be so. May I to eter- 
nity lie in deep humility at His feet, recognizing the immenseness 
of his mercy, and the utter unworthiness of the subject on which 
it has wrought so many miracles, truly expressive of its own uncon- 
fined benignity 1 Do you wish to know how I was taken care of 
during my sickness ? I indeed lacked nothing that could be pro- 
cured ; nor was there any difficulty to procure persons to sit up 
with me day or night. Yea, I had much favour in the sight even 
of the Egyptians. May the good Lord reward them to eternity for 
what they have done for his unworthy servant !" 

About a month after the writing of this affecting letter, Mr. 
Clarke came to England for the more perfect recovery of his health, 
and returned again to Guernsey, where he arrived. May 22nd, from 
whence he wrote to the same favoured individual, a letter of which 
the following is an extract. 

" You will easily see by the place of date that I am arrived, and 
(thanks to my gracious God) in perfect safety. On the 19th I 
wrote to you from Southampton, which I hope you have duly re- 
ceived. Saturday the captain informed me that he intended to 
sail the next morning ; in consequence of which I got myself in 
readiness and sent my trunk on board. As eight was the hour 
fixed for embarkation, several persons. Dissenters and others, en- 
treated me to give them a sermon before I departed, for which I 
should have time enough if I began at half past six. I consented, 
and a good company, for the time and place, met. The Lord was 
with me, and gave much liberty to expose and power to shake the 
sandy foundation of spiritual stillness, consisting of hopes, trusts. 



OF THE REV, ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S, I6l 

conjectures, and possibles, on which several had been building 
their expectation of glory. The Lord in his goodness quickened 
the people much ; and though my work was done at the expence 
of almost every particle of my strength, yet was I sufficiently repaid 
in finding that any good was done. It was well that our sailing 
was postponed till two o'clock, as I was quite unwell and conse- 
quently incapable of going. But at that hour I embarked, being- 
escorted to the boat by several serious Presbyterians who had heai'd 
me preach, and who wished me more blessedness than their tongues 
were capable of expressing. The wind was a little against us ; but 
as there was a good breeze, and our vessel an excellent sailer^ we 
soon lost sight of Southampton, and next day by noon were almost 
off Cape la Hogue, in Normandy. Here we were obliged to cast an- 
chor in about thirty-four fathom water, having a strong tide against 
ws, and scarcely a breath of wind to carry us forward. When the 
tide served we weighed anchor, and stood on our course, but made 
very little progress the breeze being so scant and smalL At last 
we got to the island of Sark, three leagues from Guerusey, where 
we thought we should be obliged to anchor all night, the tide in 
our favour being almost exhausted, and the wind changed to 
right a-head. What a mortification ! to be thus detained on sea in 
sight of our lodging," 

Mr. Clarke proceeds to give his correspondent some account of 
the company he had on board the vessel. Among others there 
were a captain in the army, a lieutenant of a man-of-war, some 
other military officers, and some gentlemen so called. When Sab- 
bath morning came, they commenced the business of the day with 
swearing, which lie instantly checked- Then they began to sing 
songs as though it had been their Easter Tuesday ! Against this 
he remonstrated and it brought on a long altercation. They de- 
sisted for a time, but it was only to renew their profane singing 
with double vigour. Mr. Clarke acted upon the well known and 
excellent maxim " Ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito He 
rushed upon deck, assembled the chiefs, and insisted on their de- 
sisting from such profanation of the Lord's day. They demanded 
to know by what authority he acted, and Mr. Clarke answered, 
" I am a servant of Jesus Christ, and the authority by which I 

Y 



162 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

prohibit your breach of the Sabbath, I have from God." The 
consequence was, that being confounded, they were compelled to 
desist — their bacchanalian songs were effectually stopped — and the 
devil had not the honour of a single verse during the remainder of 
the Sabbath. 

There is another letter of Mr. Clarke's written from Guernsey, 
in the autumn of the year 1787, giving an account of a very dan- 
gerous voyage which he had then just made from Alderney to 
Guernsey, which contains some very interesting particulars worthy 
of record, but the whole letter is too long for insertion here : we 
shall, however give an abstract of it. 

Mon Plaisir, October, 19th 1787. - 

'* Through the great mercy of my gracious God, I am landed 
once more in Guernsey ; may his great name be blessed for ever! 
i wrote to you from Alderney under dates of the 16th and 17th 
instant, informing you of my arrival there, and the dangers we es- 
caped. At present I can add but little, being almost worn out by the 
severe fatigues through which 1 have been lately led— the present 
is merely a supplement to my Journal accounts which I hope you 
will have safely received. Wednesday being too stormy to attempt 
to sail for Guernsey, I had the opportunity of once more preaching 
to a people prepared to receive the word of life. God was with me 
of a truth, and unless I much mistake, conviction and persuasion 
accompanied the word spoken. The Lord has here made an inroad 
on the kingdom of Satan, which I humbly hope will be retained 
with increasing advantage. Thursday the i8th came, and with it 
a tempest from the North-west — It blew a hurricane, but the cap- 
tain determined to sail. We loosed from the pier and got under 
sail ; but although we had two reefs in our mainsail ; the sea ran 
so high, and the wind was so boisterous, we soon found our vessel 
had more canvass than she could live under, and were therefore 
obliged to lie-to, that we might take down our weather-jib -sheet, 
and put a small one in its place, I had taken a stand at the bulk* 
head, from whence I had an opportunity of seeing every thing 
around me. And what, think you, did I see the clearest ? Why 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



163 



the awful aspect of death impressed on every thing. A sensation 
unusual to me, sunk my soul as to the centre of the earth, or bot- 
tom of the abyss! ' Alas, thought I, and am I indeed afraid of 
death ? Is this the issue of matters with me ? Lord Jesus, into thy 
hands 1 commit my spirit ! On the infinite merit of thy blood I 
rest my soul !' Immediately all was calm ; and this enabled me to 
take a full view of death, who was shortly to pass by in dreadful 
port, "the sailors being unhandy, the weather-jib sheet was long 
in setting, and the vessel during the time was wearing towards a 
range of dreadful rocks. The sea continuing to run high, and the 
wind blowing fiercely, brought us so much in leeway, that the ves- 
sel would not answer the helm, but drove among the rocks. In a 
few moments fill was commotion — exertion — despair ! and a cry 
more dreadful than that of fire at midnight issued from all quarters. 
* Cut away the boat ! get ready the boat ! the vessel is lost ! the 
vessel is lost !' The people on the pier, seeing our danger, and re- 
garding our shipwreck as inevitable, got out a boat, with four 
strong men to try to save the lives of the passengers and crew. 
At this solemn crisis, fell, pallid despair was depicted on every 
countenance. With safety I may aver that scarcely a particle of 
courage or equanimity remained in any besides a captain of regu- 
lars and your present correspondent. Through the grace of God 
my soul was quite unmoved. I waited like the captain to meet my 
fate with firmness ; nor did either my countenance or actions be- 
tray any anxiety or dismay. In the moment, when a dreadful rock 
within two or three yards of our lee-how, gave us every thing to 
dread, and took away the last grain of hope, God, who sits above 
the water-floods, by an unseen arm, hove the vessel to leewards ; 
she passed the rock as within a hair's-breadth, answered once more 
her helm, and from the lip of eternity, we escaped into the pier 1 

" Perhaps you will be surprised at what follows. Though we had 
but a few moments before escaped destruction, the desperate cap- 
tain of the vessel would go out again ! I thought, ' seeing God 
has saved my life from going down into the pit, it would be tempt- 
ing his Providence to go out again with them r I- will therefore 
take a boat and go immediately to shore.' B-iat I again thought, 
' will it not reflect dishonour on tiie reliigion I profess, Sfud the 



164 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



• sacred character I bear ? If all go out again, and I stay behind, 
will it not be reported the Methodist Preacher was afraid of 
death : his boasted spiritual evidences of salvation did not free him 
from its power ? I determined therefore once more to venture ! 
You will perhaps be induced to say — ' the reasoning was absurd, 
and the action blameable.' Well, be it so : but out I went, and 
what I suffered during the passage, my pen cannot describe.— 
Every minute, and sometimes oftener, the sea washed oVer the 
vessel, the violent agitation made me sick, almost unto death ; and 
vomiting till the blood came, was only a part of what I suffered — I 
landed on St. Peter's pier, before 5 o'clock, p. m. and found a peo- 
ple nearly as glad to see me as I was to feel myself once more on 
terra firma.'* 

Mr Clarke claimed the honour of being the first Methodist 
preacher that visited the island of Alderney. The following letter 
which he addressed to Mr. Wesley, explains the causes which led 
to his visit, as well as its results. 

Guernsey, March I6th 1787. 

Rev. and very dear Sir, 

As in my la^t I intimated my intention to visit the isle of Al- 
derney, I think it my duty to give you some particulars relative to 
the success of that voyage. 

My design being made public, many hindrances were thrown in 
my way. It was reported that the Governor had threatened to 
prohibit my landing, and that in case he found me on the island, 
he would transport me to the Caskets (a rock in the sea, about three 
leagues West of Alderney, on which there is a light-house ) . These 
threatenings being published here, rendered it very difficult for 
me to procure a passage, as several of my friends were against my 
going, fearing bad consequences ; and none of the captains who 
traded to the island, were willing to take me, fearing thereby to 
incur the displeasure of the governor, notwithstanding I offered 
them any thing they could reasonably demand for my passage. I 
thought at last I should be obliged to hire one of the English 
packets, as I was deiermined to go by God's grace,^at all events. 



OF THE REV ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A.S 



165 



Having waited a long time, watching sometimes day and night, 
I at last got a vessel bound for the island, in which I embarked, 
and after a few hours of pleasant sailing, though not without some 
fatigue and sickness, we came to the South-west of the island, 
where we were obliged to anchor, as the tide was too far spent to 
carry us round to the harbour. The captain put me and some 
others on shore with the boat. I then climbed up the steep rocks, 
and got to the top of the island, heartily thanking the Lord for my 
safe passage. Being arrived, I found I had now some new diffi- 
culties to encounter. I knew not where to go. I had no acquain- 
tance in the place, nor had any one invited me thither. For some 
time my mind was perplexed in reasoning on these things, till the 
word of the God of Missionaries came powerfully to me, " Into 
whatever house ye enter, first say, peace be to this house — and in 
the same house remain eating and drinking such things as they 
give you," Luke x. 5, 7. From this I took courage and proceeded 
to the town which is about a mile distant from the harbour. After 
having walked some way into it, I took particular notice of a very 
poor cottage, into which I felt a strong inclination to enter. I did so 
with a " Peace be unto this house ;" and found in it an old man and 
woman, who, having understood my business, bade me welcome to 
the best food they had, to a little chamber where I might sleep, 
and (what was still more acceptable) to their house to preach in. 
On hearing this, I saw plainly that the hand of the Lord was upon 
me for good, and I thanked him and took courage. 

Being unwilling to lose time, I told them I would" preach that 
evening, if they could procure me a congregation. This strange 
news spread rapidly through the town ; and long before the ap- 
pointed hour a multitude of people flocked together, to whom I 
spoke of " the kingdom of God," nearly as long as the little strength 
held out, which remained from the fatigues of my voyage. It 
was with much difficulty I could persuade them to go away after 
promising to preach to them the next evening. 

I then retired to my little apartment, where I had scarcely 
rested twenty minutes, when the good woman of the house came 
and entreated me to come down and preach again, as several of 
the gentry, (among whom wan one of the Justices) were come to 



166 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

hear what I had to say. I stepped down immediately, ^nd found 
the house once more quite full. Deep attention sat oh ev^ry face, 
while I shewed the great need they stood in of a Saviour an<I ex- 
horted them to turn immediately from all their iniquities to the 
living God. I continued in this good work about aJi hour> having 
received peculiar assistance from on high, and iconcluded with 
informing them what my design was in visiting their island, and 
the motives that induced me thereto. Having ended, the Justice 
stepped forward, exchanged a few very civil words with me, and 
desired to see the book out of which I had been speaking. I gave 
it into his hand : he looked it over with attention, and asked 
me several questions ; all which I answered iapparently to his satis- 
faction. Having bestowed a fetr more hearty advices on him and 
the congregation, they all quickly departed ; and the concern 
evident on many of their countenances fully proved that God had 
added his testimony to that of his feeble sea'vant. The next even^ 
ing I preached again to a large attentive company, to whom, I 
trust, the word of the Lord came not in vain. But a singulaJ 
circumstance took place the next day. i 
While I Sat at dinner, a constable from a person in authority, 
came to solicit my immediate appearance at a place called the 
Bray {"where several respectable families dwelt, and where the 
governor's stores are k^pt,) to preach to a company of gentlemen 
and ladies, who were waitings and atis-hose desire one; of the large 
store-rooms was prepared for that purpose. I w'ent without delay, 
and Was brought by the lictor to his master s apartment, who 
behaved with much civility, told me the reason of his sending for 
me, and begged I would preach without delay. I willingly con- 
sented ; and, in a quarter of an hour, a large company was assem- 
bled. The gentry were not so partial to themselves, as to exclude 
several sailors, smugglers, and labourers, from hearing wuth them. 
The Loi-d was with me, and enabled me to explain from Prov. xii. 26, 
the character and conduct of the righteous : and to prove by many 
sound arguments that such a one was, beyond all comparison, 
more excellent than hi« " ungodly neighbour," however great, rich, 
wise, or important he might appear in the eyes of men. All heard 
with df»ep attention, save an English gentleman, so called, who 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A.S. 



167 



walked out about the middle of the discourse, perhaps to shew the 
islanders that he despised sacred things. 

The next sabbath morning, being invited to preach iii the 
English church, I gladly accepted it ; and in the evening I preached 
in the large warehouse at the Bray, to a much larger congregation, 
composed of the principal gentry of the island, together with Justices, 
Jurats, Constables, &c. The Lord was again with me and enabled 
me to declare His counsel without fear ; and several were affected. 
Surely there will be fruit found of this, to the honour and praise of, 
God : Even so. Lord Jesus, Amen. 

The next day being the day appointed for my return, many were 
unwilling I should go, saying, " we have much need of such preach- 
ing, and such a preacher : we wish you would abide in the island 
and go back no more." The tide serving at about eleven o'clock in the 
forenoon, I attended at the beach in order to embark ; but an unex- 
pected providence rendered this impracticable. The utmost of the 
flood did not set the vessel afloat ; and though many attempts were 
made to get her off, by hauling a-stem &c, all were in vain. I then 
returned to the town ; the people were glad of my detention, and 
earnestly hoped ' that the vessel might sit fast, at least till the next 
spring tides.' Many came together in the evening, to whom I again 
preached with uncommon liberty ; and God appeared more emi- 
nently present than before, giving several to see at least ' men as 
trees walking.' This, with several other observable circumstances, 
induced me to believe that my detention was of the Lord, and that 
I had not before fully delivered His counsel. The vessel being got 
off the same night about twelve o'clock, I recommended them to 
God, promised them a preacher shortly, and setting sail I arrived 
in Guernsey in about twenty-one hours. — Glory be to God, tor 
ever and ever ! Amen. 

Several very remarkable circumstances attended this little 
voyage, the detailing of which I omit : from the whole of which 
I conclude, that an effectual door is opened in that Island for the 
reception of the everlasting gospel, and am convinced I did not 
mistake the call of the Lord. One thing I believe greatly contri- 
buted to the good that may have been done ; viz. a day of fasting 
and prayer which I got our societies both in town and country to 



168 MEWOmS OF THE LIFE, MINISTITY, AND WRITINGS, 

observe. Were this method more frcqtrently adopted, we should 
not attempt the introduction of the gospel so much in vain. There 
is not the smallest opposition nor even the appearance of any. As 
to the clergyman, he is absolutely a Gallio ; for, on being informed 
that a Methodist preacher had got into the island, he said, "a 
Quaker came a preaching here some years ago, and he did not 
convert one ; and it is probable it will be the case with this Metho- 
dist also :" And so he rests perfectly contented. Indeed, he preaches 
jiot at all : he reads the liturgy and Ostei^ald's Reflections upon 
the first and second lessons ; nor do the people expect him to do 
any thing further, 

I am. Rev. and dear Sir/. 
Your affectionate and obedient son in, the gospel, 

Adam Clarke, 

The reader who has not previously met with this letter, which 
however, has been many years in print, having been communicated 
to the public through the columns of a magazine, cannot fail to be 
much gratified with its contents. It gives an interesting account 
of the introduction of Methodism into the island of Aldemey, and 
at the same time affords striking proof of Mr. Clarke's feai'less 
intrepidity, at that early period of his life and ministry. Since 
that time, the cause has flourished much in that island ; a chapel 
having been built, where a succession of preachers in the Methodist 
connection, have continued their ministry both in English and 
French. 

Mr. Clarke winds up the story of his visit to Aldemey, and man- 
ner of life there, in the following amusing detail, which is too 
choice to be given in any other language than his own. 

Alderney derives much of its supplies from France, such as, fresh 
meat, butter, eggs, &c. which supply, to the great inconvenience 
of the inhabitants, is cut oflf in the time of war ; and is often sus 
pended in the time of peace, by foul weather and contrary winds. 
This latter was the case when Mr. Clarke visited the island — no 
fresh meat could be found, and the people with whom he lodged, had 
nothing to present him but " swine's flesh," an aliment of which 
he never partook ! Indeed there was nothing to be had besides. 



Of THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 1^9 

except salt butter and ship biscuit. Having enquired whether any 
fresh eggs could be procured, he had the satisfaction of finding as 
many as he needed during his stay. An old frying pan was found, 
deeply rusted, having been long out of use. From this he scraped 
off the thickest crusts of the rust ; got a piece of butter — melted it 
in the pan over the fire, and with a handful of oakum (old tarred 
rope unravelled to its component parts) he wiped out the pan as 
clean as he could, and then fried his eggs with a peice of the salt 
butter, which looked of a fine deep brown, as each cooking served 
to detach some portion of the remaining rust. Such fricassees, 
with coarse hard ship-biscuit served him in general for breakfast, 
dinner, and supper, while he remained on the island ; and for this 
he felt thankful both to God and man. He had occasional invita- 
tions to better houses where he might have obtained better fare ; 
but he remembered the Saviour's saying, which occurred to his 
mind on entering into the town — " And into whatsoever house ye 
enter, there abide, eating and drinking such things as they give 
you." This house he believed the Lord had opened, and on that 
account he would have preferred it to the palace of the Ibrest of 
Lebanon. 

The success which attended Mr. Clarke's ministry, in the Norman 
Isles, induced Mr. Wesley to continue him there for the long space 
of three years, namely, from the conference held at midsummer 
1786, when he received his appointment, till midsummer 1789. 
During this interval, however, he paid two visits to England : the 
first in 1787, and a second in 1788, both of which were attended 
with circumstances sufficiently remarkable to be shortly adverted 
to. The first will put the reader in possession of the exalted ideas 
which Mr. Clarke entertained of Mr. Wesley's character, as a 
prophet of the Lord ; but to convey a proper notion of it, I must 
quote a pretty long paragraph from Dr. Clarke's Autobiography. 

In the year 1787, the Rev. J. Wesley, accompanied by Thomas 
Coke, LL. D. and Mr. Joseph Bradford, visited the Norman islands, 
where he was well received, and preached to many large congrega- 
tions both in Jersey and Guernsey. While in Jersey, he lodged at 
the house of Robert Carr Brackenbury, Esq., who has been already 
mentioned j and when in Guernsey, at Mon Plaisir, the house of 

Z 



170 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

Henry de Jersey Esq., under whose hospitable roof, Mr. Clarke, 
had lodged for more than a ye£^r, and where he was treated by all 
the family as if he had been their own child. But there was no 
love lost, as he felt for them that affection which subsists between 
members of the same family. 

Mr. Wesley's time allotted for his visit to these Islands being 
expired, he purposed sailing for Southampton by the first fair wind, 
having appointed to be at Bristol on a particular day ; but the 
wind continuing adcerse, and an English brig touching at Guernsey 
on her way from France to Penzance, they agreed for their passage, 
Mr. Clarke having obtained Mr. Wesley's permission to accompany 
them to England. They sailed out of Guernsey road, on Thursday, 
September 6th with a fine fair breeze ; but, in a short time, the 
wind which had continued slackening, died away, and afterwards 
rose up in that quarter which would have favoured the passage to 
Southampton or Weymouth, had they been so bound. The contrary 
wind blew into a tight breeze, and they were obliged to make 
frequent tacks, in order to clear the island. Mr. Wesley was sitting 
reading in the cabin, and hearing the noise and bustle which were 
occasioned by putting about the vessel, to stand on her different 
tacks, he put his head above deck and enquired what was the 
matter? Being told the wind was become contrary and the ship 
was obliged to tack, he said, "then let us go to prayer." His own 
company, who were upon deck, walked down ; and at his request 
Dr. Coke, Mr. Bradford, and Mr. Clarke went to prayer. After 
the latter had ended, Mr. Wesley broke out into fervent supplica- 
tion, which seemed to be more the offspring of strong faith than of 
mere desire ; his words were remarkable, as well as the spirit, 
evident feeling, and manner in which they were uttered. Some of 
them were to the following effect, " Almighty and everlasting God, 
thou hast way every where ; and all things serve the purposes of 
thy will ; thou boldest the winds in thy fists, and sittest upon the 
water floods, and reignest a king for ever : Command these winds 
and these waves that they obey thee, and take us speedily and 
safely to the haven whither we would be, &c. ! " 

" The power of his petition," says Dr. Clarke " was felt by all : — 
he lose from his knees, made no kind of remark, but took up his 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 171 

book and continued his reading. Mr. Clarke went upon deck, and 
what was his surprise when he found the vessel steering her right 
course, with a steady breeze, which slacked not, till, carrying them 
at the rate of nine or ten knots an hour, they anchored safely near 
St. Michael's 3Iount, in Penzance Bay. On the sudden and favour- 
able change of the wind, Mr. Wesley made no remark ; so fully 
Ai^he expect to. be heard, that he took for granted /f^ was heard. 

Such aflsw^rs-tQ prayer* hfe rwas in 'the habit of receiving; and, 
therefore, to him the occurrence was not strange." 

From all this it is abundantly evident that Mr. Clarke considered 
this change of the wind as a supernatural interposition of heaven, 
-a answer to Mr. Wesley's prayer. — Three of his brethren had 

.rayed, for the same thing, but their prayer was not heard — Mr. 
U^esley's prayer partook of the faith of a miracle — "he expected to 
])€ heard and he was heard." Such answers to prayer, says Dr. 
Clarke, " he was in the habil of receiving, and therefore to him the 
occurrence was not strange." Mr. Wesley placed it upon record 
in his own Journal, as an every day thing, as the following five 
unes shew. 

"In the morning, (September 6th, 1781) we went on board 
with a fair moderate wind. But we had but just entered the ship 
when the wind died away. We cried to God for help : and it 
l^re sen tly sprung up, exactly fair, and did not cease till it brought 
us into Penzance Bay." 

Now without calling in question the truth of this story, which 
I have no inclination to do — it seems natural to ask ; seeing that 
tliese supernatural interpositions were familiar occurrences with 
Mr. Wesley, why, when the wind continued so long adverse as to 
delay his embarkation before he left the island, he did not pray 
that it might change and permit him to proceed on the work of the 
Lord ? One is apt to think that the same power of faith would 
have been as available in one case as in the other — on land as much 
as on sea : yet, if put forth it is manifest that the same effect did 
not follow ! 

, The inquiry now suggested, will be found to acquire additional 
propriety and relevancy, from carefully considering the drift of the 
following paragraph of Dr. Clarke's with which he closes th 
mbject : 



1721 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS. 

" Mr. Wesley was no ordinary man; every hour, every minute 
of his time, was devoted to the great work which God had given 
him to do ; and it is not to be wondered at that he was favoured, 
and indeed accredited, with many signal interpositions of Divine 
Providence." — 

Now against this, I cannot help placing the following parallel 
case, and requesting the reader to take the trouble of examining 
how far they agree and wherein they differ. 

Paul, the great apostle of the Gentiles was no ordinary man ; 
eveiy minute of his time was devoted to the great work which 
Christ had commissioned him to achieve. So far the parallel may 
be said to hold good. But further, like Mr. Wesley, Paul was on 
one occasion, compelled to take a voyage by sea; and like Mr. 
Wesley he was not merely annoyed, but sorely impeded in his 
great work, by adverse winds : See Acts, ch. xxvii. Here, however, 
the parallel must end. Mr. Wesley grew impatient of delay, 

and . The apostle Paul, though favoured, during the long and 

tempestuous voyage, with supernatural intimations of the Divine 
approbation and acceptance, resigned himself submissively and 
j)atiently to the allotments of heaven, sought for no supernatural 
interference, but calmly said, " thy will be done." There was also 
some disparity in the exercise of their faith and patience. Mr. 
Wesley was tried only at most for a few short hours ; whereas, it 
appears from the narrative that for fourteen days in succession not 
a soul in the ship with Paul was able to either eat or drink, ver. 33. 
yet we hear of no prayer to God for a miraculous deliverance. 
How shall we get over this difficulty ? Shall we say that Mr. 
Wesley's labours were more important than those of the great 
apostle of the Gentiles — that the former was a greater favourite 
with heaven — that his faith was stronger, more vigorous, more in 
exercise ? In fact, I find myself perplexed to solve this difficulty, 
A\ ithout either imputing culpability to the apostle Paul, which I am 
unwilling to do, or, on the other hand coming to the conclusion 
that there was something about Mr. Wesley's prayer which the 
word of God does not authorize ! "Mr. Clarke himself has con- 
fessed, that high as his opinion was of Mr. Wesley's piety and faith, 
he had no hope that the wind which had long sat in the opposite 



OP THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. I>. A. S. 173 

quarter, and which had just then changed in a very natural way, 
would immediately veer about, except by providential interference* 
to blow in a contrary direction. There were too many marked 
extraordinary circumstances in this case, to permit any attentive 
observer to suppose that the change had been effected by any 
natural or casual occurrence" — in plain English, it was a super- 
natural interposition of heaven in answer to Mr. Wesley's prayer! 
Credat Judsem ApeUa, non ego ! 

Mr, Clarke's excursion to England, when he accompanied Mr. 
Wesley in 1787, had for its primary object to visit a family at 
Trowbridge in Wiltshire, with which he had formed an intimacy 
when on the Bradford circuit. Mr. John Cooke, clothier, of Trow- 
bridge, had several daughters, to the eldest of whom. Miss Mary 
Cooke, he had formed an attachment, which issued in a conjugal 
union in the year 1788, when the lady accompanied her husband 
to Guernsey and remained with him till he was removed by Con- 
ference from the Norman islands. The contemplated connection 
however met with considerable opposition from the young lady's 
family. Some of her friends considered that they should be degra- 
ded by her alliance with a Methodist preacher ; but not liking to 
avow the real grounds of their opposition, they contrived to cover 
it with the flimsy guise, that one so delicately bred up would not 
be able to undergo the privations and hardships attendant on the 
life of a Methodist preacher. And these persons so prejudiced the 
mind of Mr. Wesley, that he threatened to put Mr. Clarke out of 
the connection, if he married Miss Cooke without her mother's 
consent ! 

Finding that Mr, Wesley was deceived by false representations, 
the two young people submitted to him a full state of their case. 
He also heard tiiat of the opposing party. The latter were obliged 
to confess that on the part of Mr. Clarke and Miss Cooke every 
thing was proper, and such as became their Christian profession. 
In short, that all would be well, could they obtain the consent of 
the young lady's mother, without which it would be a breach of 
the fifth commandment, and bring a scandal on the Methodist pro- 
fession. Mrs. Cooke grounded her opposition solely on the prin- 
ciple that her daughter's delicate constitution would not support 



174 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

her under the hardships mcidental to the life of a Methodist 
preacher, who is seldom stationary for more than twelve months ; 
and she candidly confessed that she had no objection to Mr. Clarke, 
whose learning and good sense she could not but admire. Matters 
however, were eventually brought to a less hostile state through the 
exertions of Mr. Wesley, who interposed his good offices — wrote a 
friendly letter to Mrs. Cooke, and made the party whose counsels 
had too much influence upon her, to be ashamed of themselves. 
The opposition, which had assumed the shape of persecution, now 
began to relax, and on the 17th of April, 1788, the happy couple 
were married in the parish church of Trowbridge — in about a week 
after which they took l4ieir departure for Guernsey. 

But though Mrs. Cooke had so far yielded to the wishes of the 
young people as to cease her opposition and to connive at the mar- 
riage, it seems that she had withheld her approbation. Mr. Clarke 
she had never seen, and knew him only by report. The consequence 
was, that for many years, all intercourse between Mr. and Mrs. 
Clarke and the family was suspended ; nor does it appear that the 
breach was entirely healed during Mrs. Cooke's life, though she 
found out many years before her death, that she had been imposed 
on and deceived by the artful misrepresentations of officious inter- 
medlers — that in place of its turning out a disastrous connection, it 
was one of the most happy marriages in her family, in which there 
were some highly respectable connections. It was crowaed with a 
numerous offspring, viz. six sons and six daughters — of whom three 
of each sex di ^d young, and all the survivors are respectably and 
comfortably settled in life. 

One of Mrs. Clarke's sisters. Miss Anne Cooke, was the wife of 
the late Joseph Butterworth Esq., law bookseller, of Fleet Street, 
London, and some time member of parliament for Dover, perhaps 
Coventry also — a gentleman well known and universally respected ; 
the firm friend of Mr. Wilberforce, with whom he co-opeiated 
heartily in every measure for the abolition of slavery in the West 
Indies, and the introduction of Missionaries into India. Mrs. But- 
terworth, too, was a very superior woman, and took an active part 
in various female associations of a philanthrophic and benevolent 
kind, among which may be particularly mentioned, the Female 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., T. A. S. 



175 



Penitentiary at Pentonville. As the circumstances attending their 
marriage, inti'oduction into the Methodist Society, and intimate 
connection with Mr. and Mrs. Clarke, are on many accounts inte- 
resting, the reader cannot fail to be gratified with them. 

Miss Frances Cooke, a third daughter, had from her youth, been 
remarkable for her pious turn of mind, and mental acquirements. 
She was married to a gentleman of the name of Pond, who, for 
some years, resided in London, and attended the Baptist chapel in 
Fetter Lane, where Mr. Butterworth also attended and had a seat. 
The latter observing Mr. Pond to come frequently to the chapel, 
and liking his appearance, invited him into his pew, and in process 
of time a friendship commenced betwixt them. Mr. Pond after- 
wards removed to Tiverton in Devonshire, at which place Mr. 
Butterworth paid him a visit. Being at that time unmarried and 
probably looking out for a suitable partner in life, Mr. Pond re- 
commended to his friend a young lady (not Miss Anne Cooke) 
but an acquaintance of hers, then residing in Somersetshire, and 
gave him a letter of introduction to Mrs. Cooke's family, with 
which he was then allied by marriage, requesting them to give his 
friend Mr. Butterworth, an opportunity of meeting the young lady 
in question. Arriving at Trowbridge in his way home, Mr. But- 
terworth spent the evening there, and arrangements were made for 
Miss Anne Cooke to accompany him next morning, on horseback, 
for the purpose of being introduced to the young lady. Having 
arrived at the inn where they were to leave their horses, Mr. But- 
terworth made a disclosure to his companion of a nature not a little 
abrupt and startling ! He told her that he now should decline call- 
ing on the young lady, assigning as a reason that he had discovered 
in her own person the only individual who could make him happy 
as a husband. The result of this frank avowal was sufficient to 
set aside the intended interview — the young people returned to 
Trowbridge, where Mr. Butterworth explained his intentions to 
Mrs. Cooke, and obtained her consent to their marriage, which 
accordingly took place a few months afterwards. At this time 
Mrs. Clarke's intercourse with her own sisters was in a state of sus- 
pension. Mr. Butterworth was descended from a Baptist family^ 
his father being one of four brothem all Baptist ministers ! viz, the 



176 MEMOiRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND A^RITINGS, 

Rev. John Batterworth of Coventry, and author of the Concor- 
dance to th« Bible. He was not then religiously inclined, nor 
friendly to Methodism. It so fell out, however, that Mr. Clarke's 
family came to reside in London, and Mr. Butterworth proposed 
that Mrs. Butterworth should call upon her sister, who then took 
up her residence in Spitalfields ; but not having seen her since her 
own marriage, at which time Anne Cooke was a young girl, she had 
lost all recollection of her. Great then must have been her surprise 
at seeing a lady fashionably dressed advancing towards her with 
great affability, and offering to salute her. On the inquiry being 
started " Surely you do not know me ?" Mrs. Clarke instantly re- 
*iogmzed her sister's voice. 

On her next visit, Mrs. Butterworth was accompanied by her 
husband, whose kind and gentlemanly manners greatly interested 
both Mr. and Mrs. Clarke. Repeated calls of this friendly kind 
led to mutual esteem, though the Butterworths were still prejudiced 
against Methodism. This, however, in process of time so far gave 
way that they at length agreed to go and hear their brother-in-law 
preach. For this purpose they fixed upon a morning when it was 
Mr. Clarke's turn to supply at the city road chapel ; and in the 
course of the following week they repeated their call at Spitalfields. 
Mr. Clarke having to preach that evening a few miles from town, 
Mr. Butterworth proposed to walk with him there, and Mrs. But- 
terworth said she would remain with her sister till they returned. 
This was a preconcerted plan between them — each wishing an op- 
portunity of unbosoming their minds respecting the impression 
they had received from Mr. Clarke's sermon on the preceding Ix)rd's 
day. It was on their way homewards that Mr. Butterworth ac- 
knowledged how sensibly his heart had been affected, and his con- 
science aroused by the sermon he had heard — that he was led to 
entertain discoveries of his own natural depravity and guiltiness 
in the sight of God, and that he could not rest satisfied in his pre- 
sent state, Mr. Clarke pointed him to the Lamb of God which 
taketh away the sin of the world and to the blood of sprinkling 
which speaketh better things than that of Abel. When Mr. and 
Mrs. Butterworth had taken their departure from Spitalfields, Mr. 
Clarke communicated to his wife what had transpired between huu 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 177 

and Mr. Butterworth on the way; and Mrs. Clarke, no less sur- 
prised and rejoiced, made her husband acquainted with an interest- 
ing conversation she had just had with her own sister, who had 
come for the express purpose of talking to her on the same all im- 
portant subject — inquiring " What she should do to be saved ?" 
She then detailed the conversation at length, the answers she had 
given to the questions propounded, particularly explaining to her 
sister the nature of faith, the commands of God to walk in obedi- 
ence to the Gospel, and the aissistance promised to such as love and 
obey him. 

In a little time both Mr. and Mrs. Butterworth became members 
of the Methodist Society, in which they continued through life, 
and were among the most substantial pillars of Methodism, as will 
be seen hereafter. Mr. Butterworth ranked among the most suc- 
cessful booksellers of his day, and accumulated a large property, 
of which he made -a noble use. He was by nature and disposition, 
benevolently disposed ; and when his heart and mind were brought 
under the influence of the principles of the Gospel, he was " ready to 
every good work" — feeding the hungry and clothing the naked ; and 
continually devising liberal things. The accession of such an associate 
was to Mr. Clarke incalculable — they advanced pari passu in works 
of beneficence — giving free scope to the operation of the principles 
of philanthrophy, and projecting plans for the spiritual, moral, and 
intellectual improvement of mankind, as we shall have occasion to 
notice in the sequel. We now return from this long digression to 
notice Mr. Clarke's departure from the Norman isles. 

Among the people of these islands, Mr. Clarke experienced much 
hospitality and' kindness. In Guernsey he seldom met with any 
discourtesy of behaviour. Several families of respectability at- 
tended his preaching and treated him with great respect, as was 
the case at Alderney. Jersey was an exception, but the particulars 
have been already detailed, and need not be repeated. The fertility 
of these islands is a common object of remark among those who 
have written on them ; and of which Mr. Clarke gives the follow- 
ing instance. In a garden in the parish of St. Saviour's in Jersey, 
he saw a plot of cabbages, which on an average measured seven 
feet in height, with large and solid heads. In Mr. De Jersey's 

2 A 



178 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



garden, at Men Plaisir, in Guernsey, where he lodged, there waa 
a cabbage that grew beside, and surpassed in height, a full grown 
apple tree ; when cut down the stem was sixteen feet in length ! 

The strawberry garden in the same j)lace was very remarkable, 
both for the abundance, size, and flavour of the fruit. It will sur- 
prise the reader to be told that from this one garden, which though 
large was not enormously so, there were gathered daily, Sundays 
excepted, for nearly six weeks, from fifty to one hundred pounds 
in weight of strawberries : and all other kinds of fruit were in pro- 
portion, both in quantity and flavour. In Mr. Brackenbury's gar- 
den, in St. Hilliers, Jersey, he cut down a bunch of grapes whicl^ 
weighed about twenty pounds. Mrs. Clarke resided in the island 
about fifteen months, during which she gave birth to her eldest 
son, John Clarke. When she and Mr. Clarke first returned to 
England, they could not relish any of the fruits of this country ; 

' the finest peaches and nectarines could only be compared to good 
turnips when brought into comparison with fruits of the same spe- 
cies in those fertile islands. 

The present section, which narrates the principal incidents in 
Mr. Clarke's life during the three years he was stationed in the 
Norman Isles, may be not inaptly closed by the following extract 
of a letter which he wrote to a correspondent in England, under 
date of'Mon Plaisir, Dec. 2, 1787 :— 

" It is strange to see how times change. Last winter I had in 
general a congregation made up of several of the most reputable 
persons in the island. To keep me among them, they oflfered to 
provide handsomely for me ; but their kind offer I again and again 
rejected. However, they continued to hear, believing I spoke the 
words of truth and soberness, and, as they phrased it, ' in the best 

manner they had ever heard.* ' Pity it was that I could not be 
permitted to preach in the church at least every Sunday.' How- 
ever, this, like all things under the sun, must have an end. By 
and bye, one of these gentry staid away ; another attended less 
frequently — then he dropped off. Such and such did not come, 
therefore I lost some more, and so on, till hardly a soul of them 
came either on Sabbaths or other days. I was then as a person 
who had been ' in honour but continued not/ and my ministry was 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL.D., F.A.S. 



179 



at last confined to 'the poor and the best friends of my God!' 
These cleaved closely to me, and praised God that the candlestick 
was yet in its place. With these 1 endeavoured to keep on my 
way ; and the dropping in of one now and then to the Society, held 
up my hands. Persecution arose, and evil reports were liberally spread 
abroad ! This made it rather dangerous for any of my quondam 
friends to take any notice of me : then I was obliged fully to walk 
alone ; but, through the strength of God, I was enabled to weather 
every trying circumstance. Finally, as things cannot be long at a 
skiy ' under the sun,' the time for a revolution must again take 
place, and the honour that I sought not — had — and lost, would, as 
unsought for, again return. One — another— and another, have 
ventured back, heard, — were pleased and profited once more, — 
brought others along with them, till, at last, I have all back again, 
with an accession of several new ones ; and now I am * an honour- 
able man' again ; and surely a great many good things would not 
be too good for me now would I accept them. Thus, you see, 
' there is but as one day between a poor man and a rich.' It is 
well, it is ineffably well, to have a happiness that is not affected by 
the great and many changes to which external things are incident. 
What a blessing to sit calm on the wheel of fortune, and to prosper 
in the midst of adversity '" 



SECTION IX. 

Mr. Clarke s history continued from 1789 to 1793 — Bristol Vircmt, 
1789 — Dublin, 1790 — Death of Mr. Wesley — Some account of 
of that extraordinary man. 

It can surely excite surprise in no reflecting mind, that the 
laborious exertions of Mr. Clarke, during the period of time he 
passed in the Norman Isles, should have made vast inroads upon 
his constitution. Almost incessant preaching, with the exercise of 
thought, of reading, and meditation necessary to qualify him for 
appearing with acceptance in the pulpit, were alone sufficient to 
break down an Herculean frame ; but, over and above all this, he 



180 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

prosecuted his literary studies with an intense application. Apolo- 
gizing to a dear friend, for some arrears which he had incurred in 
the way of epistolary correspondence, he says, " I have entered 
so deeply into the spirit of study, that every moment seems pre- 
cious, and the day too short for the work I appoint it. Do you 
wish to be acquainted with my studies ? I yet pursue my old, and 
have made some additions to my former plan. French certainly 
must not be entirely forgotten ; I know not but that meets with 
injustice. The Septuagint, I cannot persuade myself to relinquish ; 
how can I, seeing my esteem for it rather increases. The writing 
of occasional notes I must continue, though perhaps none will 
think them worth reading but myself. I am engaged to translate 
a book for Mr. Wesley, which I have not yet begun — ^this must 
come shortly, and I think it will hardly leave me time to take my 
food. Again, Philosophical Researches have not a slender part of 
the day and night ; for it appears that my spirit has lately got 
more latitude and longitude than it ever had before ; the earth does 
not now content it ; though it knows but a trifle of that, it must 
needs understand the heavens, and call all the stars by their names. 
Truly I find an ability for speculations of this kind which I never 
had before — ^but I am shackled for want of glasses — ^perhaps it is 
well it should be so 1 But I find this not a barren study to my 
mind — my soul is led by means of it, to the framer of unnumbered 
worlds, and the omnipotency of my Redeemer appears illustriously 
stamped on the little, out of the almost infinite, which I am able to 
view. I stand astonished at the amazing wisdom, power, and 
goodness of the blessed God, which I now more particularly dis- 
cover impressed on every thing that falls within the little sphere 
of my understanding, which is my only apology for pursuing 
studies of this kind. I can truly say, that my soul's most earnest 
desire is to live to him who died and rose again for me ; his long- 
suffering with, and mercies to me, almost stupify my soul in 
moments of reflection! Alas, what do I owe him !" 

Mr. Clarke took leave of the Norman Isles, in July 1789, and 
leaving his wife and son, then about six months old, at Trow- 
bridge, he proceeded to Leeds, where the Conference was that 
yeai' held, and where he received his appointment for the Bristol 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL.D.. F. A. S. 



181 



Circuit. But he had no sooner entered the field of his labours 
than he became almost unfitted for them, by the cough which 
had been brought upon him through sleeping in a damp bed at 
Beeralston several years before, and which now became so oppres- 
sive and severe, that it threatened to terminate his life! Mr. 
Wesley, who had paid a visit to Bristol after the meeting of the 
Conference, was so struck with this, that he apprized the other 
preachers, " he believed they would soon lose their colleague." 
Mr. Clarke, however, was supported under his trouble, and enabled 
to go through the work assigned him, which was very laborious, 
though under circumstances which were calculated in no small 
degree to increase his malady. 

In Bristol, the apartments allotted to the preachers for sleeping 
in, were over the chapel ; and the noxious effluvia, issuing from the 
breath of so many hundreds of people who assembled there 
throughout the week, rendered the place extremely unhealthy. It 
was surely a very mistaken notion adopted by those who had the 
conducting of the erection of Methodist meeting houses at that 
time of day, to have all the lodging rooms of the preachers over 
the places of worship, and experience proved it to be extremely 
prejudicial to the health of both the preachers and their families. 
Such Mr. Clarke found it ; and from the very summary manner in 
which he has dispatched the narrative of his labours during the 
year he was stationed on the Bristol circuit, one naturally infers 
that it was not the happiest year of his life : " though there was 
but little prosperity in the circuit, yet he left it both in its spiritual 
and temporal concerns in a much better state than he found it.'* 
Verhum sat. 

In 1790, the Methodist body met in Conference at Bristol, 
where Mr. Clarke was stationed. Mr. Wesley was then fast 
approaching the termination of all his ministerial labours — it was 
the last Conference at which he was allowed to preside. Experi- 
ence and observation had taught him that there were limits beyond 
which the exertions of the preachers whom he employed could not 
be carried without cutting short their days, and consequently 
lessening the sum of their usefulness. He, consequently, found his 
mind particularly impressed with the necessity of adopting a plan 



^82 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



which might have the beneficial effect of diminishing the labour of 
the preachers, which he perceived was shortening the lives of many 
useful men. After confening with some of the senior preachers, 
at a meeting held in his own study, previous to the meeting of 
Conference, he proposed that a rule should be adopted, that " no 
preacher should preach thrice on the same day." The preachers 
objected, that the thing was impracticable ; for that, unless this 
was done, the places could not be supplied. Mr, Wesley rejoined, 
" it must be given up ; we shall lose our preachers by such exces- 
sive labour." They answered, " We have all done so, and you' 
even at a very advanced age have continued to do so." " What I 
have done," said he, " is out of the question ; my life and strength 
have been under an especial Providence. Besides, I know better 
than they do how to preach without injuring myself; and no man 
can preach thrice a day without killing himself sooner or later, and 
the custom shall not be continued." Finding Mr. Wesley so deter- 
mined, they desisted from further opposition ; yet, wh^n the minute 
had been put to the ministers convened in Conference, and carried 
by them, they contrived to neutralize it, as it passed through the 
press, by altering it thus, — " No preacher shall henceforth preach 
three times in the same day (to the same congregation)." 

Mr. Wesley's remark was unquestionably true, both as respected 
his own manner of preaching, and the almost utter impossibility of 
preachers in general conducting three services every Lord s day 
without impairing their health thereby. The writer of these lines 
has heard Mr. Wesley, and is persuaded that he could have 
preached three sermons with less difficulty or exhaustion than the 
generality of preachers could have delivered one, or than Dr. 
Clarke, in particular, could have delivered two. There was, 
therefore, great propriety in restraining this excess of labour. " He 
who preaches the gospel as he ought," says Dr. Clarke, " must do 
it with his whole strength of body and soul ; and he who under- 
takes a labour of this kind every Lord's day, will infallibly shorten 
nis life by it." One of the old bishops of the Church of England 
has somewhere remarked, that " if he preached twice on the same 
day, he did but chatter once .'" 

The state of Methodism in Ireland was a particular topic of de- 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 183 

liberation with the Bristol Conference in 1790, and it was found 
very difficult to fix upon a suitable preacher for Dublin. The per- 
son who filled the station during Mr. Wesley's life was considered 
in the light of his representative over all the Irish circuits and 
preachers. In this emergency Mr. Clarke was proposed; but 
Mr. Wesley objected on account of the precarious state of his 
health. It was, however, ultimately agreed to submit the matter 
to Mr. Clarke himself, which was accordingly done ; and as it was 
his maxim never to choose a circuit for himself, nor raise objec- 
tions to such as was appointed him by his brethren, he consented* 
and proceeded to Dublin, in the month of August, 1790. 

It is very possible that, in being offered a post of such honour 
and influence as that of the Dublin circuit — a kind of primate-ship 
of all (Methodistic) Ireland — his native country too, and the scene 
of his youthful days ; he might fancy himself about to repose on " a 
bed of roses but if that were his fond imagination he was speedily 
undeceived ; for, no sooner did he arrive at Dublin than he found 
himself exposed to numberless difliculties and distressing circum- 
stances. A new house for the preacher was in progress of build- 
ing, and to that was attached a large room for a charity school. 
The preacher and his family were to occupy the lower part and 
first floor ; and the charity school room was to extend over the 
whole of the building on the second floor. The builder, an un- 
principled knave, fulfilled no part of the contract either as respected 
time or plan. He contrived to get possession of the original agree- 
ment, which the stewards unwisely entrusted to him, and then re- 
fused ever to produce it, pretending to have lost it. Bad materials 
and execrable workmanship were every where manifest, and scarcely 
any thing was done according to specification. The house was 
not ready for the reception of Mr. Clarke's family at the time of 
their arrival, and they were obliged to go into lodgings. The latter 
proved inconvenient and uncomfortable ; and when the new house 
was finished, they were induced to enter upon it long before it was 
dry, which nearly cost both himself and family their lives. In a 
little time he was seized with a severe rheumatic affection in the 
head, which his medical attendants treated so mistakenly that it 
increased his malady and brought him to the brink of the grave 



184 ME3I0IRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITI\(;S, 

His recovery was slow and imperfect ; and it was probably a disgust 
taken at the unskilful hands into which he had fallen that led him 
to enter himself a medical student in Trinity College, Dublin, 
where he attended several courses of lectures. From these studies, 
aided by bis own reading and reflection, he acquired a smattering 
of medical science, sufficient at least " to serve his own large family 
in all common cases, and to keep, what he ever considered the 
bane of families from his door. When he thought a skill superior 
to his own was wanted, he called in some respectable physician ; 
and always kept and prepared the medicines necessary for do- 
mestic use." 

In the year 1791 while Mr. Clarke was residing in Dublin, a 
Turkish Janissary, who had then recently arrived from Liverpool, 
paid him a visit, which led ultimately to a familiar intercourse, and 
was the means of leading him to renounce the Mussulman religion 
and embrace the Christian faith. The history of this man is so 
singular, almost bordering on the marvellous, that an abstract of 
it cannot be unacceptable to the reader. Ibrahim ben Ali, which 
was the name of this Turk, was born at Constantinople in the year 
1756. His father Ali ben Mustapha possessed an estate about six 
miles from Constantinople worth about ten thousand pounds sterling. 
From his youth he had much of the fear of God ; which his father, 
who was a zealous and conscientious Mussulman, endeavoured to 
improve. Among the many slaves which his fathtr owned, there 
were several Spaniards, who frequently spoke to Ibrahim of the 
God of the Christians, and of Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world ; 
adding, even at the hazard of their lives, that Mahomed was not a 
true prophet, and that his doctrines were false. These things were 
not without their effect on Ibrahim's mind. At eleven years of age 
he was circumcised, and married at thirteen to his first wife Halima, 
who was then twelve. 

Shortly after his marriage he performed the pilgrimage to Mecca. 
His mother, Halima, was of Christian extraction, a native of the 
island of Zante ; and having been stolen by some Venetians, was 
bought in Aleppo, by Ali ben Mustapha, who loved her too well to 
take another wife. She continued her attachment to the profession 
of Christianity, and though she never dared to speak ojDenly in its 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 185 

favour to her children, yet she frequently gave them intimations 
that there was a purer way of worshipping the true God than that 
in which they were instructed. She frequently succeeded in obtain- 
ing from her husband the manumission of many Christian slaves, 
especially such as were old and sickly. Ibrahim had three wives> 
by whom he had six children, viz. three by the first wife, two 
by the second, and one by the last. His domestic happiness was 
not such as to prevent him from thinking of travelling ; and in 
order to gratify his desire of seeing the world, he prevailed on his 
father to obtain him a captain's commission among the Janissaries. 

When he had been about five years in the army a singularly 
awful occurrence took place, to the following effect. Two young 
officers, particular friends of his, and who lodged beside him in the 
same barracks, were found one morning murdered in their beds. He 
was accustomed to accompany them to the Mosque very early in 
the morning, according to the custom of the Mahomedans. On the 
morning in question, he sent his servant to call them as usual ; but 
receiving no answer, Ibrahim went to prayers alone. On returning 
to his room, he called again, and again received no answer. 
About eight the Basha came and enquired for them ; he found their 
door locked and no answer was returned to his summons. He then 
ordered the door to be forced open: and on entering they were both 
found with their throats cut, and their bodies stabbed in several 
places. Ibrahim, who was known to be intimate with the murdered 
men, and who slept in the next room, was accused of the murder 
and committed to prison. His declarations of innocence were use- 
less, and his friends by the exercise of both influence and entreaty, 
could only obtain five days to be granted, for the purpose of finding 
out the perpetrator of this horrid murder. On the fifth day, a plate 
of black olives was sent to him as a token that to morrow he must 
suffer death. His father, mother, and friends came to have their 
last interview; and his mother's courage appears to have been 
aroused by the imminence of the danger, for she openly begged him 
as a dying man, to trust in the supreme God alone, and to pay no 
attention to any part of the Mahomedan doctrine. An old Spaniard, 
who was a slave in the prison, brought him a cup of coffee, and sitting 
down by his side, said, " turfi Christian and recommend your soul 

2 B 



186 MEMOIRS 01 THE LIFE, MINISTRlf, AND WRITINGS, 



to God through Christ Jesus, and he will save you unto eternal life.* 
At short intervals Ibrahim riepeated this, three or four times, and 
was persuaded that his mother had spoken to the slave on this 
subject before her departure from the prison. He passed the night 
without sleep, and at six the next morning, the attendants on the 
prison came to his cell. On hearing the doors open, his strength 
forsook him and he fainted away. But when recovered from his 
swoon, what was his joy to be presented with his pardon ! ! In the 
course of that night two private soldiers confessed that they had 
murdered the officers in revenge for some harsh treatment they had 
received at their hands : and they were instantly executed. To 
recompense the old slave, Ibrahim bought him his liberty, gave him 
some money and sent him to Spain ; and the slave in return coun- 
selled him to continue his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, who had 
so wonderfully delivered him, and to do all the good that lay in 
his power to all men, not minding to what sect, or party, or nation 
they belonged. From this time an insatiable desire after a farther 
acquaintance with the Christian religion took possession of his soul, 
and never afterwards forsook him. 

The Russians and Turks were about this time engaged in war 
with each other concerning the navigation of the Black Sea, and it 
fell to Ibrahim's lot to be engaged in the campaign. He was in 
four battles, received many i^evere wounds, and was at last taken 
prisoner in the province of Wallachia, on the banks of the Danube, 
and conveyed to Arzenicour, about fifty miles from St. Petersburg. 
There he remained about tAVO years, and obtained his liberty as the 
grateful acknowledgment of a lady in that neighbourhood, whose 
eyes he had been the means of restoring to health and strength. The 
good treatment which he experienced, his freely conversing with the 
Christians of that place, and rejoicing to hear of the Christian 
religion, excited the envy and malevolence of two fellow captives, 
who wrote to Constantinople that Ibrahim had turned Christian, and 
that there was every reason to believe he had proved a traitor to his 
country, by delivering his troops into the hands of the Russians, 
These slanders had such an influence at Constantinople, that his 
brother warned him not to return till all had been investigated and 
cleared up. Finding that there was no hope of his being able 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



187 



speedily to revisit his native country, he embarked on board a ship 
bound to Copenhagen, and thence sailed for Liverpool. 

While Ibrahim was a prisoner in Russia, his parents, wives, and 
children, had removed to Ismail as a place of greater security, 
during the time that their relative was under suspicion. The 
melancholy fate that this place was doomed to undergo is but too 
well known as matter of history : it was stormed and sacked by the 
Russians under the command of General Suwarrow, when all the 
inhabitants were put to the sword, and the whole of Ibrahim's 
family perished in the hideous slaughter house, excepting one 
brother and sister, who had been left behind to look after their 
fjither's estate near Constantinople. 

From Liverpool, Ibrahim came to Dublin ; and being but in- 
ilifFerently acquainted with the English language, he made inquiry 
for some one who understood either Arabic or Spanish. He was 
■iirected to Mr. Clarke, to whom he soon made known his situation. 
At first he was received with considerable caution ; but a further 
acquaintance convinced him of Ibrahim ben Ali's integrity, and 
iaily intercourse ripened their acquaintance into friendship. Mr. 
Clarke took him under his tuition, taught him the way more 
perfectly, and in the course of a few months he was, at his own 
earnest request, baptized into the Christian faith, by Mr. Ruther- 
ford, in Whitefriar Street chapel, Mr. Clarke interpreting into 
Spanish the words of the baptismal service. Being thus inducted 
into the Christian church, he remained in Dublin all the time that 
Mr. Clarke continued on that circuit, rarely passing a day without 
spending part of it with Mr. Clarke's family ; and when the latter 
left Dublin for Liverpool, he accompanied them, remaining during 
Mr. Clarke's two years abode in that town. When they removed 
to Manchester, Ibrahim also accompanied them thither, and after 
residing some time there in constant intercourse with Mr. Clarke, 
he departed for the United States, where he married a lady of the 
Baptist persuasion, and at last died in the faith and hope of the 
■Gospel. I now return from this digression. 

Dublin was far from turning out a comfortable circuit for Mr. 
€larke, or, indeed, any other preacher, at that time. The society 
'was rent with disputes respecting the use of the Liturgy of the 



188 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

Church of England. Dr. Coke had introduced it, with the appro- 
bation of Mr. Wesley, at the Whitefriar Street chapel ; but it was 
opposed by some leading members of the society, and these being 
mostly the richer members, withdrew their countenance and support. 
At length, as a healing measure, both sides consented to remit the 
point to the British Conference, who restored matters to their 
original state, by abolishing the forenoon's service — Mr. Clarke 
giving his voice against the continuance of the prayers, which had 
great weight with the Conference. He had no sooner done this 
than he regretted it as the greatest ecclesiastical error he had ever 
committed, deeply deploring it for many years, and rejoiced, when 
in the course of Divine Providence, he was enabled, some years 
after, to restore that service in the newly erected chapel in Abbey 
Street. A schism, however, had taken place in the body ; a party 
separated themselves, and set up a connection of their own under 
the name of Primitive Methodists, a principal object with whom, 
according to Mr. Clarke's view of the matter, was, " to deprive the 
original connection of its chapels — divide its societies, and in every 
way injure its finances, and traduce both its spiritual and loyal 
character. 

While in Dublin, Mr. Clarke formed a charitable institution 
called " The Stranger's Friend Society," the first of several that 
were organized, under his supervision, in the principal towns of 
England, as Liverpool, Manchester, London, &c. &c. most of which 
still subsist in all their vigour, and have contributed greatly to th* 
relief of suffering humanity, and the amelioration of the miseries 
of our fellow creatures. 

The origin of these societies he has himself traced back to a 
consultation between him and Mr. Wesley at Bristol, in the year 
1 789, on the basis of a small meeting, the members of which sub- 
scribed one penny per week for the relief of the poor. When he 
went to Dublin in the following year, he formed the society above- 
mentioned, but did not at that time print or publish the rules. 
When he removed from Dublin to Manchester, he again formed 
another society under the same name ; but he now drew up a paper 
which he read publicly to the congregation in Oldham Street 
chapel, and requested that such persons as were friendly to such 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. 9 189 

an iiistiliitioTi would meet him in the vestry after service. M ^'v 
did so, and the prevailing opinion was, that the paper should be 
printed, which was done, and it met with universal acceptance. 
VVlien Mr. Clarke removed from Manchester to Liverpool he 
formed a similar society in the latter place ; and in 1795, at which 
time he was stationed in London, he formed at Wapping " The 
Stranger's Friend Society," which extended to the City Road, 
Spital fields, and in fact, over the whole city and suburbs. Institu- 
tions of this benevolent cast are now become so generally estab- 
lished in all our large towns, that they require no minute detail ; 
but much praise is certainly due to those with whom they origi- 
nated, and who persevered in carrying them into effect — among 
whom, as the benefactors of mankind, we must allow Dr. Clarke 
his modicum of applause. 

Mr. Clarke continued on the Dublin Circuit but one year, and 
it was a year characterized by ill health, perplexing circumstances 
in his religious connection, distress in his family, being called to 
bury his eldest daughter ; and what was still more afflictive to him, 
it was at this time that Mr Wesley was removed from all concern 
with the cares and anxieties of human life. When Mr. Clarke first 
heard of this, " the most solemn event that ever occurred in the 
Methodist connection" to use his own words, " he was overwhelmed 
with grief ; and such were his feelings, that all he could do was to 
read the little printed account of his last moments." His admira- 
tion of Mr. Wesley as a man, a divine, and a philanthropist, was 
unbounded — he held him in the highest rank of mortals — and, if 
we may be allowed to adopt the language of the apostle Paul con- 
cerning the blameahle conduct of the Corinthians, it might be 
truly said of the subject of this memoir — " He was of John 
Wesley." 

The biography of this extraordinary man has been given to the 
world by numerous writers of competent talent and ability, and 
who possessed all the requisite information for doing justice to the 
undertaking, so that there remains nothing new to be said of him 

in the present day. His life has been written by Hampson 

Whitehead — Coke — Moore — Clarke — Southey— Watson, and many 
others whose names do not occur at the moment ; but forty years 



190 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

have now elapsed since Mr. Wesley died, and a -new generation has 
arisen to occupy the places of those who were his contemporaries. 
To them, at least, a brief sketch of the history of the founder of 
Methodism cannot be unacceptable in this place — it has an inti- 
mate connection with the memoirs of Dr. Adam Clarke. 

John Wesley was born on the )7th of June, 1703, at Epworth, 
in Lincolnshire, of which parish his father was rector. His mother 
was Susannah, daughter of Dr. Samuel Annesley. He was the 
second of three brothers — Samuel, John, and Charles — and re- 
ceived his school education at the Charterhouse, whence he was 
removed at the age of seventeen to Christ Church College, Oxford. 
He is said to have had naturally a great turn for wit and humour, 
to which his accurate knowledge of the classics gave a fine polish. 
He made great proficiency in the usual studies of the university by 
his diligence and talents — took his degree of Bachelor of Arts— 
and attained a very respectable rank among the members of that 
learned community. In 1724, he was elected fellow of Lincoln 
College, and soon became distinguished for his classical attain- 
ments, skill in dialectics, and no ordinary share of talent in poetry. 
He had not been long elected fellow ere he was appointed Greek 
lecturer, and took pupils. The Latin language was almost as 
familiar to him as his mother tongue, and he both spoke and wrote 
it with remarkable purity and elegance. The Greek Testament 
too was nearly as familiar to him as the English. His skill in 
logic is so well known that it is almost proverbial. He has been 
said to take a malicious pleasure in puzzling his opponents by the 
fallacies of that art, but this he always denied ; and, on the con- 
trary, has declared that he never in his life, in any disputation, 
designedly took the wrong side in any question ; and, lest he 
should be brought insensibly to this, he always avoided being 
opponent in the public disputations at the university. In 1725, 
he received ordination at the hands of Bishop Potter. 

For some time after he had taken up his residence at the uni- 
versity, he was only distinguished as a grave and sedate young 
man; but the perusal of Law's Serious Call to a Devout and Holy 
Life, with other devotional tracts that fell in his way, togetlier with 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



191 



the solemnities of his ordination, produced in his mind such a train 
of thought and feeling, as led him to great austerity of manners 
and behaviour. He took his degree in February 1727, and in the 
following August became his father's curate. In 1728 he returned 
to Oxford to obtain priest's orders ; and paid another visit to 
Oxford in 1729, where, during his stay, he associated with a few 
young men, among whom were his own brdthfer Charles, and Mr. 
Morgan, who met together and read the classics on week-days, and 
theology on the Sunday ; but, in process of time, their meetings 
became exclusively religious. This small society was the nucleus 
of the two numerous bodies now called the Wesleyan and Calvin- 
istic Methodists. His father wished him to make interest for the 
next presentation to the living of Epworth, but he was too much 
attached to Oxford and the manner in which he was engaged, to 
listen to his advice. 

Although this society had originated with Mr. Charles Wesley 
during the time that his brother was at Epworth, yet, when the 
latter returned to Oxford, the management of the society was com- 
mitted to him, and no one was more fitted for the office. His 
influence and energy gave additional vigour to the exertions of his 
associates in seeking their own spiritual improvement, and pro- 
moting the good of others. The union of system and efficiency 
which he found in this association, well accorded with his practical 
and governing mind ; and thus he was- training himself to those 
habits of regular and influential exertion, which subsequently pre- 
pared him for the share he took in managing the concerns of the 
Methodist connection. 

In 1732, Mr. Benjamin Ingham, of Queen's College, founder of 
the denomination of the Inghamites, and author of an excellent 
little volume on the Faith and Hope of the Gospel, joined this 
little society; as did also Mr. Broughton, of Exeter Hall; Mr. 
Clayton, of Brazen-nose, with two or three of his pupils; and, about 
the same time, Mr. George Whitefield and Mr. James Hervey 
were permitted to meet with them. The society, in the whole, 
comprised about fifteen members, who, by the strictness of their 
manners and deportment, were variously designated by the gayer 
students, but more especially obtained the name of Methodists — 



192 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

an appellation which Ihcy have themselves sanctioned and re- 
tained. 

Besides the care of this little society, and his concern for his own 
spiritual improvement, Mr. Wesley had now other duties to perform. 
He was appointed tutor to his college, and also presided in the 
hall as moderator in the disputations which were held six times a 
week. This last appointment he always regarded as a very gra- 
cious providence ; " I could not" he was wont to say, " avoid ac- 
quiring hereby some degree of expertness in arguing ; and especially 
in discerning and pointing out fallacies that were plausible and 
likely to impose upon superficial thinkers. I have since found 
abundant reason to bless God for conferring upon me this honest 
art." 

It appears that Mr. Morgan led the way in visiting the prisoners 
in Oxford jail, for the purpose of affording them religious instruction. 
The Wesleys followed his example ; and they afterwards resolved 
to spend two or three hours a- week in visiting and relieving the 
poor and the sick generally, in those parishes where the ministers 
did not object to it. This was so novel a practice, and might be 
thought so contrary to church order, that Mr. Wesley consulted 
his father upon the point. From him the society received much 
encouragement in their pious labours ; he blessed God for having 
given him two sons, then at Oxford, who had received grace and 
courage to turn the war against the world and the devil — he bade 
them defy reproach, and animated them, in God's name, to go on 
in the path to which the Saviour had directed them. At the same 
time he advised them by way of caution, to consult the proper 
authorities, the chaplain of the prison and bishop of the diocese. 
The desired sanction was obtained, but it did not screen them 
from opposition and rebuke. One of their number drew back from 
the conflict, and other matters putting on a frowning aspect, Mr 
Wesley again wrote to his father, who replied — after quoting in 
Greek, 2 Cor. vii. 4. Great is my glorying of you ; I am filled 
with comfort ; I am exceeding joyful : " he then adds, " What 
would you be ? Would you be angels ? I question whether a mor- 
tal can arrive to a greater degree of perfection than steadily to do 
good and for that very reason patiently and meekly to suffer evil. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A.S. 193 

For my part, on the present view of your actions and designs, my 
daily prayers are that God would keep you humble ; and then I 
am sure that if you ' suffer for righteousness sake,' thougli it be 
but in a lower degree, the Spirit of God and of glory shall, in some 
good measure, rest upon you. And you cannot but feel a satisfac- 
tion in your own minds, such as you would not part with for all 
the world. Never be weary of well-doing, for you know the prize 
and the crown are before you, though I can scarce think so meanly 
of you, as that you should be discouraged by ' the crackling of 
thorns under a pot.' Be not high-minded, but fear. Preserve an 
equal temper of mind under whatever treatment you meet with, 
from a not very just or welUnatured world. Bear no more sail 
than is necessary, but steer steady. The less you value yourselves 
for these unfashionable duties (as there is no such thing as works 
of supererogation) the more all good and wise men will value you, 
if they see your works are all of apiece; or, which is infinitely 
more. He, by whom actions and intentions are weighed, will both 
accept, esteem, and reward you. I hear my son John has the ho- 
nour of being styled the Father of the Holy Club. If it be so, I 
am sure I must be the grandfather of it ; and I need not say that 
I had rather any of my sons should be so dignified and distin- 
guished, than to have the title of His Holiness." 

Under the influence of counsels so judicious, these zealous young 
men proceeded in their course, meeting together and confirming 
one another in their pious resolutions. They visited the prisoners, 
and poor families in the town when they were sick, denying them- 
selves of superfluities, and sometimes of necessaries for the purpose 
of relieving the needy ; and redoubled their efforts to produce reli- 
gious impressions upon their college acquaintance and others. 
Even their eldest brother, Samuel, who had for some time looked 
on their proceedings with rather a suspicious eye, now endeavoured 
to confirm them in their determination, and therefore thus wrote 
to his brother John : " Rather than you and Charles should give 
over your whole course, especially what relates to the castle, I 
would choose to follow either of you, nay, both of you, to your 
graves. I cannot advise you better than in the words I proposed 
as a motto, * Stand thou steadfast as a beaten anvil j far it is the 

2C 



IQ'i MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

part of a good champion to be flayed alive or to conquer." John 
felt the force of this and wrote to his brother in reply — As to the 
end of my being, I lay it down for a rule that I cannot be too happy, 
or therefore too holy ; and thence infer, that the more steadily I 
keep my eye upon the prize of our high calling ; and the more of 
my thoughts, and words, and actions are directly pointed at the 
attainment of it, the better. 2. As to the instituted means of at- 
taining it, I likewise lay it down for a rule, that I am to use them 
every time I may. 3. As to the prudential means, I believe this 
holds of things indifferent in themselves. Whatever I know to do 
me hurt, that to me is not indifferent, but resolutely to be abstained 
from ; whatever I know to do me good, that to me is not indifferent, 
but resolutely to be embraced." He moreover entreated his mo- 
ther to point out any thing that might appear to be objectionable, 
eithei in his plans or his conduct ; and his father having occasion 
to visit London at the close of the year 1 731, extended his journey 
to Oxford where he was so well satisj&ed with his personal obser- 
vations and inquiries, that he declared to Mrs. Wesley, he had been 
abundantly repaid by the shining piety of their two sons. 

But it is important to remark, in this place, that while Mr. John 
Wesley was so exceedingly zealous to promote the salvation of his 
own soul, and the souls of his fellow sinners, he was totally igno- 
rant of THE SAVING TRUTH — ^the way of acceptance with God — the 
way in which the ungodly are justified, which is solely by faith 
in the atonement made for sin by the Son of God, when he, the just 
one, died in the place of the unjust, according to Rom. iii. 24, 25, 
and ch. iv. 4. The consequence was that all his pious labours and 
exertions proceeded upon a self righteous principle ; he was seeking 
to obtain justification before God by the works of the law, in flat 
opposition to all that the Scripture teaches on this deeply inter- 
esting subject, for such it certainly is to every son and daughter of 
Adam. The testimony of the inspired writers is, that " by the 
deeds of the law shall no flesh living be justified, for by the law is 
the knowledge of sin" — and instead of justifying one who has 
broken a single precept of it, the law denounces its curse a:nd con- 
demnation, and that upon every soul of man that doeth evil, whe- 
ther Jew or Gentile. The account which Mr. Wesley has given of 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 195 

his own experience at this period exhibits lucid proof of the truth 
of the fact now stated, namely, that with all his zeal about religion 
he was ignorant of God's righteous method of justifying the un- 
godly — he was labourino: to conform his heart and life to the divine 
law, the perfect standard of holiness as the ground of his accep- 
tance with God ; and finding the impossibility of this, he was the 
continual subject of distress and perplexity. The anxious inquiry 
perpetually returned, " What lack I yet ?" After all his prayings 
and fastings and religious exercises, he found himself as far as ever 
from that peace with God, delight in him, and filial access to him 
which the New Testament describes as the privilege of all who are 
" the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus " — and he felt great 
surprise that this was the case with him. He wrote to his mother, 
laying before her his unhappy state j but it does not appear that 
either father or mother, or sister or brother was aware of the real 
ground of his distress. The mistake under which he laboured is 
natural to the heart of man, viz. to seek the favour of God through 
the medium of some good thing about ourselves ; whereas the reli- 
gion of Jesus Christ proceeds upon a principle entirely the reverse 
of this. For instead of teaching men to seek the favour of God 
through the medium of their own righteousness, it testifies that 
God is WELL PLEASED in the finished work of his beloved Son — 
that the divine complacency and delight centers in and rests upon 
that work — and that he receives none into his favour but such as be- 
lieve the record or testimony of God concerning it — such as are 
persuaded of the perfection and sufficiency of the Redeemer's righ- 
teousness ; and, as the consequence of this persuasion, take refuge 
from the condemning sentence of the divine law, by faith in the 
blood of the sin-atoning Lamb. 

And now that the subject is fairly before us, I would gladly 
avail myself of the opportunity of calling the attention of the rea- 
der to that which constitutes the hinge or turning point between 
real and spurious Christianity. A real Christian, in opposition to 
all the various ways in which men naturally seek to please God, 
is persuaded npon divine authority, that God is already well 
PLEASED IN HIS BELOVED SON. This soul reviving and cheering 
fact we are taught by the voice that came from heaven, from the 



196 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

excellent glory. This is the great i^oint proved by the resurrection 
of Christ from the dead, for it was the grand matter of dispute be- 
tween Jesus of Nazareth and the Jews before he died ; it was for 
insisting upon this that the Jews condemned him to deatli, and up- 
on which both sides appealed to heaven for decision. It was no 
part of the dispute whether Jesus in assuming the title of the SON 
OF GOD, thereby claimed to be truly and properly God ; — ^all 
parties concerned, whether friends or foes, were agreed on this 
point ; for under this title Jesus claimed equal honour with the 
Father — under this title the believing Jews worshipped him, and 
ascribed the divine perfections to him, even at a time when nothing 
was more zealously maintained among the Jews than the worship- 
ping of one God only. It is too late now to alter the meaning of 
that title : the only dispute then was whether that title belonged to 
Jesus ; whether he was really the beloved Son of God, in whom 
the Father is well pleased, and this important fact is fully ascer- 
tained to us bi/ the resurrection 0/ Jesus Christ from the dead, Rom. 
i. 4. Acts ii, 22, 24. 

As Jesus came into the world not to suffer for any sin of his own, 
being himself without sin, but according to his own declaration, 
to give his life a ransom for many ; so God, in raising him from the 
dead, gave the highest demonstration of his being well pleased with 
the ransom which he paid ; and as Jesus put the proof of the truth 
of his mission and doctrine upon the issue of his being raised again 
from the dead, of which his enemies also were apprised ; so his resur- 
rection affords us the highest proof of the divine assent, concurrence, 
and approbation of all his words and actions. Accordingly the 
apostles, in pursuance of their commission to preach the Gospel, 
upon which eternal life hinged, every where bare witness to this 
fact, and made it their first and chief business to persuade men of 
it ; and when through divine power accompanying their teaching, 
any were brought to believe and confess it, their continual care 
about them was that they might keep it in memory, on which their 
salvation hinged, (see 1 Cor. xv. 2. and 2 Tim. ii. 8.) and to subserve 
this great purpose, were the various institutions of Christ's king- 
dom, the observances which the holy apostles ordained and deli- 
vered unto the churches to keep, especially designed. This then 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., E. A. S. 



197 



is the first principle, the great axiom of Christianity, from which 
we find the apostles inferring almost every thing else that we are 
called to believe or practise in the Christian religion. 

It is from this that a Christian draws his first taste of that peace 
aiid joy which is man's proper life in distinction from the brutes. 
This keeps him, like his pole-star, from groping in the dark, after 
every idle guess, stated by the wise and learned about virtue and 
happiness. Instead of seeking, like other men, to recommend him- 
self to the favour of God by some qualification he either has or 
hopes to attain — he commences his Christian course with the per- 
suasion that God is already well pleased in his beloved Son ; that 
every thing needful to recommend to the divine favour was com- 
pleted by Jesus on the cross, when he said " It is Jinished" and 
gave up the ghost. 

This persuasion, which is neither less nor more than the faith 
of the Gospel, becomes the influencing principle, the leading line 
of the Christian's life, it leads him to love God and keep his com- 
mandments. His motives to his deeds of the greatest self denial 
arise from hence. The persuasion that the character of the Lord 
Jesus Christ was so amiable in the eye of God, as to procure his 
favour to the guilty, draws the believer to imitate that character 
for, according to the apostle John, " He that saith I know him 
(Christ) and keepeth not his commandments is a liar, and the 
truth is not in him :" — " He that saith he abideth in him ought 
himself also so to walk even as Christ walked," 1 John, ii. 4, 6. 
A Christian, then, is led in that path of virtue which is in the 
highest repute with God ; though, as was exemplified in the life 
and character of Jesus, the true standard of it, it will never be the 
path to honour in this world. Moreover the real Christian is 
moved and actuated by that principle, which of all others draws 
the heart of man with the greatest pleasure, namely, gratitude. 
So he toils not in the fruitless task of making out a title to the 
divine favour, but his obedience is a continued expression of thank- 
fulness to God for Jesus Christ, his unspeakable gift, and that all- 
perfect righteousness which he finished upon the cross, as a full 
title to the divine favour for the guiltiest of mankind. 

This truth, or doctrine concerning Christ and his finished work, 



198 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

which is the object of Jehovah's complacential delight, when be- 
lieved on its proper evidence, gives such a dash to the natural 
pride of his own understanding that the Christian can no more 
trust his own reasonings about God and happiness a priori — but 
learns the true character of God, and his own situation with respect 
to him wholly from this doctrine. This forms his judgment about 
mankind and about himself also — it alters his mind entirely as to 
every thing he formerly thought valuable about himself in the 
sight of God, or gave him any preference to others in that respect ; 
so it keeps him from looking down upon any of mankind with au 
air importing, stand hy. 

This doctrine directs the Christian in the choice of his dearest 
friends, and is the measure and rule of his friendship with them. 
And if he have friends in other respects, his fondest wish in their 
behalf is, that they were like-minded with himself in reference to 
this truth ; that they knew and believed and loved it, and found all 
their salvation and all their desire in it. He wishes, I say, for he 
well knows that lie cannot persuade, nor contribute any thing 
to the obtaining of his wish ; even as he knows he did not contri- 
bute any thing himself to his obtaining any comfortable apprehen- 
sion of this truth : he knows, that whatever pains might have been 
taken with himself, and however morally serious he might have 
been, he sees plainly that the bent and aim of his mind, in his most 
sincere endeavours that way lay in direct opposition to the plain 
import of that fact, which he now believes, and in which he finds 
his happiness — all which comports with the divine declaration. 
" I am found of them that sought me not : I am made manifest 
unto them, that asked not after me : I said, behold me, behold me, 
to a people that was not called by my name." Isa. Ixv. 1. Rom. x. 21. 

From those miscellaneous thoughts on scriptural Christianity, 
as contrasted with that which is merely nominal and spurious ; 
which is imbibed from education or natural habits and customs, or 
even human systems, I now return to the history of Mr. Wesley. 

In the course of his connection with the University, attempts 
were made by the seniors of the college, to check the progress of 
what they called enthusiasm, but without coming to any definite 
conclusion, or producing any effects beyond that of increasing tha 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 199 

energy and the caution of those to whom they were opposed. The 
associated band of students continued to exert themselves in every 
}>ossible way to promote and extend their usefuhiess ; and at the 
termination of the session the two Wesleys visited Epworth, the 
residence of their venerable parents, whither they travelled on foot 
with the view of saving all they could for benevolent purposes ; 
and in this journey they began the practice of reading as they 
walked, in order that they might save time as well as money. 

On their return to the University, they had the mortification to 
find their little company greatly diminished, partly by the indis- 
position of Mr. Morgan, who was gone into the country for the 
benefit of his health, and partly by the absence of several other 
members ; yet they still persevered in their designs, and exhibited 
the same steadiness of purpose in doing good. Mr. Samuel Wesley 
had suggested, that in some points they carried their practices too 
far ; and, in reply, his brother John, among other things, observes, 
" I have often thought of a saying of Dr. Hay ward's, when he 
examined me for priest's orders ; ' Do you know what you are 
about ? You are bidding defiance to all mankind. He that would 
live the Christian minister, ought to know that, whether his hand 
be against every man or no, he must expect every man's hand 
should be against him.' It is not strange that every man's hand, 
who is not a Christian, should be against him that endeavours to 
be so. But is it not hard, that even those who are with us should 
be against us ; that a man's enemies, in some degree, should be 
those of the same household of faith ? Yet so it is. From the 
time that a man sets himself to this business, very many, even of 
those who travel the same road, many of those who are before as 
well as behind him, will lay stumbling blocks in his way. One 
blames him for not going fast enough ; another for having made 
no greater progress; a third for going too far, which perhaps, 
strange as it is, is the more common charge of the two. For this 
comes from all people of all sorts ; not only infidels, not only half 
Christians, but some of the best of men are very apt to make this 
reflection." 

In July, 1732, Mr. John Wesley paid a visit to Mr. Law, author 
of the " Serious Call," at Putney, with whom he had much con- 



200 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

versation. He afterwards repeated his visits, and maintained a 
correspondence with him for several years. About this time, too, 
he began to read some of the mystic divines of Germany, which, 
though they encreased too much his love of contemplation, and of 
refinement in religion, do not appear to have diminished his activity 
in doing good to others. In August, Mr. Morgan, who had set the 
example of methodism to the two Wesleys and their friends, died 
at Dublin after a tedious illness. In the course of the summer, 
Mr. Wesley made two journeys to Epworth, on the last of which 
the family met for the last time ; the father being old and infirm, 
and Samuel being about to remove to Tiverton. 

In consequence of his father's declining health, it became the 
wish of his parents that Mr. John Wesley should succeed him in 
the living of Epworth, and that measures should be taken to secure 
for him the next presentation. To this he was at first indifferent, 
and afterwards declined to make any application for it, on tlie 
ground that a re^dence in Oxford would not only allow him a 
greater opportunity of being useful, but would also conduce more 
to his spiritual improvement. The correspondence on this subject, 
which took place between Mr. Wesley and his friends, more 
especially his father, is very curious and characteristic, but too 
long for insertion in this place. 

Mr. Wesley, senior, died in April, 1735, his two sons, John and 
Charles, being present at his death. He died in peace, at the age 
of seventy-three. As his son John had made no interest to suc- 
ceed his father as rector of Epworth, it was soon after disposed of 
in another direction, and he very contentedly considered himself as 
settled at Oxford, without any risk of being molested in his quiet 
retreat. A new scene of action, however, soon opened before him, 
attracted him from his privacy, and gave a new impulse and 
decided character to his future life. 

The trustees of the new colony of Georgia, in North America, 
now one of the United States, happened at that time to be much 
in want of proper persons to send thither to preach the gospel, 
both to the Colonists and Indians, In this emergency their atten- 
tion was directed to Mr. Wesley and his associates, whose regu- 
.larity of behaviour, abstemious way of living, and readiness tc 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 201 

endure hardships were well known, and spoke volumes in their 
favour. On the 28th of August, 1 735, Mr. Wesley had an inter- 
view with his friend Dr. Burton, one of the trustees, who intro- 
duced him to Mr. Oglethorpe, the governor of the colony, when 
the matter was introduced to him, and urged on him by such 
arguments as were thought most likely to dispose him to accept 
the proposal. After some consultation with his friends, and much 
consideration and prayer on his own part, he at length consented 
to leave his native land and go to Georgia. He accordingly took 
leave of Oxford, and on the 14th of October, 1735, set oflf for 
London, accompanied by his brother Charles, who had now taken 
orders ; also, Mr. Benjamin Ingham, formerly mentioned ; and Mr. 
Delamotte, son of a London merchant, in order to embark for 
Georgia. " Our end," said Mr. Wesley, " in leaving our native 
country, was not to avoid want, God having given us plenty of 
temporal blessings; nor to gain the 'dung and dross' of riches and 
honour; but simply this, to save our souls, and live wholly to the 
glory of God." 

There is in existence a letter written by Mr. John Gambold, one 
of his fellow collegians, who afterwards became a Moravian, 
written soon after Mr. Wesley took his departure for Georgia, in 
which the character of the latter is sketched in highly favourable 
terms. It is to be found in the Life of Mr. Wesley, written by the 
late Mr. Richard Watson, who judiciously remarks upon it, that 
" the letter is honourable to Mr. Gambold's friendship ; but he waa 
not himself, at that time, of mature spiritual discernment ; nor had 
Mr. Wesley opened the state of his heart to him with the freedom 
which he had used in the letters to his mother. The external 
picture of the man is exact ; but he was not inwardly that perfect 
Christian which Mr. Gambold describes, nor had he that abiding 
interior peace. He was struggling with inward corruptions, 
which made him still cry, ' O, wretched man that I am !' And he 
as yet put mortification, retirement, and contempt of the world, too 
much in the place of that Divine atonement, the virtue of which, 
when received by simple faith, at once removes the sense of guilt, 
cheers the spirit by a peaceful sense of acceptance through the 
merits of Christ, and renews the whole heart after the image of 

2D 



202 MEMOIRS OF THE LITE, MINISTRY, AND WKITINGS, 

God. He was indeed attempting to * work out his own salvation 
with fear and trembling,' but not as knowing that * it is God that 
worketh in us to will and to do of his good pleasure.' He had not 
in this respect learned ' to be nothing' that he might ' possess all 
things.'" 

Such is Mr. Watson's view of Mr. Wesley's state and character 
at the time he accepted this important mission. It does not diflfer 
very materially from the view I have formerly given of it, but the 
reader is left to judge for himself which of the two representations 
is most accordant with the oracles of God. 

On board the vessel in which Mr. Wesley and his associates 
sailed to America, there were twenty-six Germans belonging to the 
Moravian mission. An acquaintance soon commenced, and Mr. 
Wesley was so much taken with their spirit and appearance, that 
he immediately entered upon the study of the German language in 
order to converse with them ; and the Moravian bishop, and two 
others, began to learn English, that they might enjoy the benefit 
of mutual conversation. Thus commenced Mr. Wesley's acquaint- 
ance with the JMoravian brethren, which he afterwards extended, 
and from which he received impressions that had an influence on 
much of his future life. During the voyage a storm arose which 
greatly endangered the safety of the vessel, and Mr. Wesley and 
liis companions were not a little alarmed by the fear of death ; 
while the Moravians, in the midst of danger, remained perfectly 
tranquil and composed. During the storm, the sea broke over 
them, split the mainsail in pieces, covered the deck of the vessel 
with its briny waves, and poured such a deluge over them as if the 
great deep had already swallowed them up. While Mr. Wesley 
and his associates were all confusion and dismay, the Moravians 
calmly resigned themselves to the will of heaven, and employed 
themselves in singing hymns of praise to their God and Saviour. 
When they had weathered the storm, Mr. Wesley asked one of 
them if he and his friends were not afraid ; to which he replied, " I 
thank God, no." " But were not your women and children afraid ?" 
He mildly replied, " No, our women and children are not afraid to 
die." Such unwonted calmness and composure, with the prospect 
of death before them, forcibly struck the English, and strengthened 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F A. S. 



203 



the desire of Mr. Wesley to know more of the principles that sup- 
ported them in such trying circumstances. 

After a tempestuous voyage the passengers landed on the 6th of 
February, 1736, on a small island near Savannah, in Georgia. 
This, which is now a flourishing state, was then in its infancy as a 
colony, the first settlers having landed only three years before. 
The British government had encouraged it as a defence to the 
Southern provinces against the Spaniards; but it had been projected 
by men of enlarged benevolence as a means of providing for those 
who could not find employment at home. When the Wesleys 
arrived there, and for some years afterwards, it was under the 
management of trustees, but was ultimately surrendered to govern- 
ment, who took the charge of it till, in the American revolution, it 
became one of the United States. 

Mr. Charles Wesley lost no time, after their arrival, in settling 
himself at Frederica, and Mr. John Wesley took up his residence 
at Savannah. They then commenced their labours in good earnest, 
and pursued them with vigour and energy, but with little success. 
This has been resolved into different causes. Some writers tell us 
that the disadvantages of a new colony, and the unsettled state of 
society in such circumstances, increased the difficulty which the 
state of human nature, generally, places in the way of the progress 
of the Gospel. Others resolve the failure of the mission into a 
want of wisdom and discretion on the part of those engaged in it. 
The disturbed state of the colony prevented all preaching to the 
Indians, and although the colonists of Savannah were at first 
attentive to the ministry of Mr. John Wesley, his notions were too 
exclusively high church for his hearers. He refused to admit to 
the Lord's table, dissenters, unless they would consent to be re- 
baptized, insisted on the rite of baptism being performed by im- 
mersion, which is certainly enjoined by the Rubric of the Church 
of England, and by a variety of ascetical practices raised the" 
people's prejudices, and excited an unfavourable opinion of his 
judgment. 

He was, however, gaining ground for the mission in Savannah, 
when a circumstance occurred which issued in his abandoning 
Savannah altogether. He had formed an attachment to an accom- 



204 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

plished young lady, the niece of Mr. Causton, the chief magistrate 
of Savannah, and, on her part, it appears to have been returned 
■with equal cordiality. The connection, however, was broken off, 
and the lady was soon afterwards married to a gentleman of the 
name of Williamson. Mr. Wesley was not a little chagrined and 
mortified at this. Party spirit was excited, and disputes arose, 
which occasioned him much perplexity and trouble ; such as the 
rigid discipline he enforced in all his religious exercises was not 
calculated to diminish. He was called to answer to certain charges 
before the civil court of Savannah, one of which was, for refusing 
to admit to the Lord's Supper, the lady above-mentioned, without 
deigning to assign any reason for so doing. Perceiving that he 
had no prospect of getting rid of these legal proceedings with the 
least satisfaction to his own mind, he consulted his friends and 
fellow-labourers as to what he ought to do, and the decision was 
that he should leave Savannah without delay. He accordingly 
gave public notice of his intention to depart, alledging that God 
had called him to ^return to England" — shook off the dust from his 
feet, and left Georgia, after a residence in it of one year and nine 
months. 

Mr. Wesley arrived in London on the 3d of February, 1738; 
and, notwithstanding the failure of the mission, which he could not 
but lament, he still found matter of thankfulness for having been 
led to visit that country. His own words will best express his 
sentiments : — " Many reasons I have to bless God for my having 
been carried into that strange land, contrary to all my preceding 
resolutions. Hereby he hath, 1 trust, in some measure, humbled 
me, and proved me, and shown me what was in my heart. Hereby 
I have been taught to ' beware of men.' Hereby God has given 
me to know many of his servants, particularly those of the church 
of Hernhuth (Moravians). Hereby my passage is open to the 
writings of holy men, in the German, Spanish, and Italian tougues. 
All in Georgia have heard the Word of God ; some have believed 
and begun to run well. A few steps have been taken towards 
publishing the glad tidings both to the African and American 
heathens. Many childi'en have learned ' how they ought to serve 
God' and to be useful to their neighbour. And those whom it 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 205 



most concerns, have an opportunity of knowing the state of their 
infant colony, and laying a firmer foundation for peace and happi- 
ness to many generations." 

Mr. Wesley arrived in England the day after Mr. Whitefield left 
it, on his first voyage to Georgia. They passed each other in the 
channel, or the river, without knowing it at the time, or it is not 
improbable, that by his representation of the state of things in 
Georgia, and his own treatment there, he might have dissuaded 
Mr. Whitefield from going. Charles Wesley had come home for 
the express purpose of procuring assistance, and John had written 
by him to invite Mr. Whitefield to come over to Georgia and help 
them. The latter had risen into great popularity at Bristol and 
London during Mr. Wesley's absence, and would probably have 
given birth to methodism, had Messrs. Wesley not existed. On 
his voyage homeward, as well as after his return, Mr. Wesley 
examined his own heart with the utmost care and rigour, and com- 
pared the state of it with the Word of God, for the purpose of 
ascertaining whether he was a converted person — a true believer, 
or not ; and the conclusion at which he arrived was unfavourable 
to his Christian character ! He now became intimately connected 
with the Moravians in London — particularly with one Peter Boehler, 
a teacher among that people. The 7th of February, only four days 
after his arrival in London, " a day much to be remembered," he 
had a conversation with Boehler on the subject of saving faith. 
When the latter stated his views of the subject, Mr. Wesley started 
objections which caused Boehler more than once to exclaim, " My 
brother, that philosophy of yours must be purged away !" He 
met him again at Oxford, and the result of these conferences was, 
that " in the hands of the great God," to use Mr. Wesley's own 
words, " I was clearly convinced of unbelief, of the want of that 
faith whereby alone we are saved with a full Christian salvation." 
A scruple seized his mind, whether, under these circumstances, it 
was not his duty to leave off preaching ; for " how could he preach 
to others who had not faith himself?" Boehler was consulted; but 
his answer was, " by no means to leave off preaching." " But what 
can I preach ?" said Mr. Wesley. The Moravian replied, " Preach 
faith till you have it j and then, because you have it, you will 



206 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

preach faith." Accordingly, he began to preach this doctrine, 
though he declares his soul recoiled from the work ! I must here 
beg the reader's pardon while I offer a few strictures on this 
curious exhibition of hocus pocus about faith. The whole narra- 
tive demonstrates how much both parties were groping in the 
dark on this important subject, though, with the Scriptures in 
their hands, to which neither of them, however, seem to have had 
any ear to give. Every child may learn from the New Testament 
that saving faith is neither less nor more than the belief of the 
gospel — the truth testified concerning the person, character, and 
work of Christ ; with the Father's good pleasure in that work, as 
manifested by his raising his Son from the dead. With the belief 
of these things the promise of salvation is inseparably connected. 
In proof of this assertion, I adduce the following texts of Scripture : 

Go, preach the gospel to every creature — he that believeth (it) 
shall be saved." " These things were written that ye might believe 
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing (this) have 
life through his name." " If thou shalt confess with thy mouth 
She Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised 
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." " Moreover, brethren, I 
declare unto you the gospel — how that Christ died for our sins, 
and was buried, and rose again on the third day ; by which also ye 
are saved if ye keep it in memory."* 

This is the uniform and concurrent language of Divine revela- 
tion on the subject ; but how very different, nay, how opposite, is 
the doctrine of the schools respecting it. According to the latter, 
a man may believe all that the Gospel teaches without receiving 
the least saving benefit from it, which is in effect to give the lie to 
the Word of God. The apostle John declares that Whosoever 
believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God" — that is, he is 
regenerated — become a new creature — a child of God by faith in 
Christ Jesus. f The belief of this grand truth, purifies the heart, 
overcomes the world, and worketh by love, so is the principle of 
sanctification.t Now, admitting this to be the doctrine of the 

* Mark, xvi. 15, 16 ; John, xx. 31 ; Rom. x. 9 ; 1 Cor, xv. I — 4. 

t 1 John, V. 1 — 5 ; GaL ill. 26. J Acts, xv. 8, 9 j John, xvii, \7. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F A. S. 



207 



inspired writers on the article of saving faith, let us examine how 
the matter will stand when the sentiments of Messrs. Boehler and 
Wesley arc brought to the test. Mr. Wesley became convinced on 
a diligent scrutiny that he had not saving faith — in other words, he 
did not believe the record which God hath given of his Son — he 
did not believe Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the living God — 
he did not believe that he died for our sins, and was buried, and 
that he rose again according to the Scriptures— he did not believe 
that the Father is well pleased in him, for his righteousness sake — 
he called in question the truth and reality of all these grand and 
glorious facts, which constitute the Gospel of our salvation, conse- 
quently he was under the power of unbelief, and made God a liar, 
1 John, V. 10 — but he was, according to the sage instruction of 
Boehler, to preach these things as true until he believed them, and 
then he would continue to preach them because he believed them ! 
Is it possible to carry absurdity further ? See Matt. xv. 13, 14. 

Mr. Wesley acted on the advice of his counseller, and though 
conscious he was an unbeliever, he continued to " preach faith," 
which, if it had any meaning, must import that he called uorn 
others to believe what he himself did not ; and in this state he con- 
tinued till Wednesday, May 24th, 1738, a quarter before nine in 
the evening ! He had gone, very unwillingly, to a society in 
Aldersgate Street, on entering which he found one of the company 
reading aloud Luther's Preface to his epistle to the Romans ( query, 
Galatians?) What followed he has himself thus related: — ■ 
" While he was describing the change which God works in the 
heart, through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed : I 
felt I did trust in Christ Jesus alone for salvation; and an assurance 
was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine and 
saved me from the law of sin and death," 

The innate rationality of his character, however, would not leave 
him quietly to the influence of enthusiasm ; and to strengthen his 
faith, and quiet some occasional misgivings, he went over to Ger- 
many and visited the Moravian station at Hernhuth, the head 
quarters of the Unitas Fratrum, where he found himself greatly 
edified by the conversation of the elders : he wished also to make 
himself acquainted with the discipline and organization of their 



208 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

societies. To one of their most eminent ministers. Christian David 
he was particularly indebted and attached; and he records the 
advantage he received from hearing him preach, and especially 
from one of his sermons on the all-important doctrine which had 
now become so interesting to him. " I would gladly," he says, 
" have spent my life here; but my master calling me to labour in 
another part of his vineyard, I was constrained to take my leave of 
this happy place. O ! when shall this Christianity cover the earth 
as the waters cover the sea ? I was exceedingly comforted and 
strengthened by the conversation of this lovely people, and returned 
to England more fully determined to spend my life in testifying 
the Gospel of the grace of God." Mr. Wesley arrived in London 
on the 16th of September, 1738, being now in the thirty-sixth year 
of his age. 

To form a proper estimate of the value of the services rendered 
to the cause of religion by Mr. Whitefield and the two Wesleys, 
with their fellow labourers, it is necessary to take a view of the then 
general state of the country as relates to the profession of religion, 
more especially in the established church. Many and signal bene- 
fits accrued to this nation from the labours of the reformers, Wick- 
liffe and his successors. They broke the fetters of mental and 
spiritual slavery — brought forth the book of life from the murky 
recesses of cloistered monks — asserted its supremacy over all the 
traditions of the Romish church, and the decisions of Popes, Car- 
dinals, and Councils, and insisted on the right of every man to 
examine the holy scriptures and judge of their meaning. They 
disengaged the leading truths of revelation and particularly the 
doctrine of justification by faith without the deeds of the law — a 
doctrine which Luther said " reigned in his heart ; " and thus they 
sapped the foundation of all the mummery of the Papal priesthood. 
The articles of the Church of England comprised the leading prin- 
ciples which the reformers were solicitous to inculcate ; but though 
they exhibited many of the grand truths of revelation in a scriptural 
light, they contained others wholly at variance with nature of 
Christ's kingdom as an economy wholly spiritual and heavenly — 
a kingdom not of this world — but governed solely by the laws laid 
down in his own word, and having its seat in the heart and aflfeo- 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 209 

Hons of his believing people. Such is that article which maintains 
that " the church has authority to decree rites and ceremonies" — 
that is, to legislate for Christ, in what relates to the public worship 
of God ! — and also " to decide controversies in matters of faith." 
This, together with some other questionable positions, gave rise to 
various bodies of dissenters. Baptists and Psedobaptists, generally 
ranked under the appellation of Puritans, who, though proscribed 
by the state for a period of three centuries, and oi'ten most cruelly 
persecuted — nevertheless maintained their ground and operated as 
leaven in the meal, preventing the body politic from wholly return- 
ing to a state of moral putridity. To this gradually increasing 
body of Protestant nonconformists. Englishmen stand mainly in- 
debted under God for the liberties they now enjoy ; and not to the 
supporters of the English hierarchy. 

In the reign of Charles I. the bigotry and intolerant Tory prin- 
ciples of Archbishop Laud, brought matters to something like a 
crisis, in which the nation had to decide whether Popery or Protes- 
tantism should have the ascendancy ; and the change which took 
place in the state of preaching within the pale of the establishment 
was not a little aided and advanced by the unbounded profligacy 
and licentiousness which for a time overspread the nation. A race 
of clergy deluged the church, Arminian, if not Pelagian, in their 
doctrinal creed, who, discarding every thing that was discriminating 
in the gospel, contented themselves and their hearers with dry dis- 
quisitions on morality, inferior often to the instructions of heathen 
writers. Hence followed a state of ignorance among the people, 
and great apathy on all subjects connected with religion. The Act 
of Uniformity came into operation on the 24th of August, 1641, 
and it had driven two thousand of the ablest and most conscientious 
ministers out of the church. Mr. Locke calls them "worthy, 
learned, pious, orthodox divines," who did not throw themselves 
out of service, but were forcibly ejected — and this ill-starred measure^ 
while it strengthened the dissenting interest, could not but draw 
down a night of moral darkness on the church of England. Devo- 
tion was in a great measure extinguished in the great mass of the 
community — the people became alienated from the communion of 

2E 



210 MEMaiRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

tlie national establishment, and little remained of religion but an 
attention to external forms. 

Occasionally a discussion took place on the doctrine of the 
Trinity, or the atonement, on the return of appropriate festivals ; 
but such doctrines as the corruption of human nature, the necessity 
of regeneration, justification by faith, the influence of the Holy 
Spirit in enlightening, sanctifying, and comforting the souls of the 
disciples, were, to use the language of Hervey, " little understood 
and less regarded, if not much mistaken and almost forgotten" — 
they were, in fact, held up in opprobrious names to ridicule and 
contempt The creed established by law had no sort of influence 
on the people : the pulpit completely vanquished the reading 
desk ; piety and puritanism were confounded in one common re- 
proach ; an almost pagan darkness in the concerns of salvation 
prevailed ; and the English were said to have become the most 
irreligious people upon earth." 

Such was the state of things among the members of the church 
of England, when Whitefield and Wesley made their appearance 
as ministers of the established church, and began to sound the 
tocsin of alarm among the multitude who were sleeping the sleep 
of death. Unenlightened themselves into the spiritual nature of 
Christ's kingdom, it formed no part of their concern to follow out 
our Lord's commission by baptizing those who professed to believe 
his gospel, and gather them into folds and flocks as at the begin- 
ning, in a state of separation from the unbelieving world, giving 
them the ordinances which Christ and his apostles had instituted, 
to be statedly observed till he come again. Their plans were 
plans of their own devising, and had little affinity to those of divine 
appointment, as exemplified in the primitive apostolic churches, 
and recorded for our direction and government in the New Testa- 
ment. It was no part of their wish to innovate on the established 
religion of their country ; they were content to leave the Anti- 
christian constitution of things in the national church as corrupt 
as they found it. All their concern was to awaken the careless and 
unconcerned to some consideration of their eternal interests — to 
civilize the savage and uncultivated — reform the profligate and 
sensualist — and point all descriptions of men to the Lamb of God 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL, D., F. A. S. 211 

that taketh away the sin of the world. They were most earnest 
and indefatigable in the prosecution of their design, and prosecu. 
ting the benevolent enterprise, they had to encounter much obloquy 
and reproach ; the hostility which it excited was less sanguinary 
but scarcely less virulent than that which signalized the first pub- 
lication of Christianity. This picture might be enlarged, and 
rendered still more gloomy, but enough has been said to shew that 
the rise of Methodism, notwithstanding its want of congruity with 
primitive Christianity, was productive of important results to the 
cause of religion. All classes of men, whether churchmen or dis- 
senters were aroused from their torpid state ; a spirit of inquiry 
was set on foot, and men' had recourse to the bible for information. 

Mr. Wesley, following the convictions of his own mind, and 
profiting by his visit to Germany, embraced every opportunity of 
preaching with the greatest earnestness, and according to the best 
light he had, the gospel of salvation. In London great crowds 
followed him — the clergy preached against him — the genteeler part 
of his audiences, whether they attended to the sermon or not, felt 
themselves annoyed by the bustle of crowded congregations, and in 
a little time almost all the churches of the Metropolis were shut 
against him. Referring to this period he tells us that he began, 
Sep. 17th 1738 " to declare ag-ain in his own country the glad tidings 
of salvation, preaching three times, and afterwards expounding the 
holy scriptures to a large company in the Minories. On Monday 
I rejoiced to meet our little society, which now consisted of thirty- 
two persons. The next day I went to the condemned felons in 
Newgate : in the evening I went to a society in Bear Yard and 
preached repentance and the remission of sins. The next evening 
at a society in Aldersgate street. Some, at first, contradicted, but 
not long ; so that nothing but love appeared at our parting. On 
Monday the 9th of October, I set out for Oxford. In walking, 
1 read the truly surprising narrative of the convei-sions lately 
wrought in and about the town of Northampton, in New England. 
Surely, this is the Lord's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes. 
In December, hearing of Mr. Whitefield's return from America, he 
met him in London, where they renewed their intercourse, taking 
" sweet counsel together" on the great work in which both tl»3ir 
hearts were engaged. 



MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

In the spring of the year 1739, Mr. Whitefield began to preach 
in the open air, in the vicinity of Bristol, and soon drew immense 
congregations. In the mean time Mr. Wesley continued his labours 
in London and Oxford alternately, and occasionally in the neigh- 
bouring places, without any intention of altering his usual manner 
of proceeding. But towards the end of March, he received a let er 
from Mr. Wliitefield, intreating him in tlie most pressing manner, 
to come to Bristol, evidently with the intention of persuading him 
to enter on the practice of out-door preaching — a thing for which 
Mr. Wesley had neithei' physical force nor power of lungs to en- 
counter. At first he was reluctant to comply with the request ; 
and his brother Charles and some others warmly opposed his going, 
from an apprehension that it would prove fatal to him. At length, 
however, he became more reconciled to it, and, as he says, freely 
gave himself to whatever the great head of the church should, in 
his providence, appoint him to do. " On Thursday, March 29th" 
says he, " I left London, and in the evening expounded to a small 
company at Basingstoke. Saturday the 31st, in the evening, I 
reached Bristol and met Mr. Whitefield there. I could scarce re- 
concile nayself at first to this strange way of preaching in the fields, 
of which he set me an example on Sunday ; having been all my 
life, till very lately, so tenacious of every point relating to decency 
and order, that I should have thought the saving of souls almost a 
sin if it had not been done in a church." But finding himself ex- 
cluded from the churches, and not daring to be silent, he was 
reduced to the necessity of preaching in the open air, in opposition 
to his former notions and habits. In a review of this practice some 
time afterwards he observes. " I have since seen abundant reason 
to adore the providence of God herein, making a way for myriads 
of people, who never troubled any place of worship, or were likely 
so to do, to hear that word which they soon found to be the power 
of God unto salvation." 

On the first of April, Mr. Whitefield having left Bristol, Mr. 
Wesley began to expound Christ's Sermon on the Mount — " One 
pretty remarkable precedent," says he, " of field preaching ; for I 
suppose there were churches at that time also ! Monday the second 
I submitted to be more vile, and proclaimed in the highways the 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



213 



glad tidings of salvation, speaking from a little eminence in a 
ground adjoining the city, to about three thousand people." His 
preaching was attended with considerable success — numbers agree- 
ing to meet together to edify one another. He continued in Bristol 
and its neighbourhood till June, and gives us the following account 
of a week's labour. " Every morning I read prayers and preached 
at Newgate ; every evening I expounded a portion of scripture at 
one or more of the societies. On Monday, in the afternoon, I 
preached abroad near Bristol. On Tuesday at Bath, and two-mile 
hill alternately; on Wednesday at Baptist Mills. Every other 
Thursday near Pensford ; every other Friday in another part of 
Kingswood. On Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, in the 
Bowling-green. On Sunday at eleven near Hannam Mount ; at 
two at Clifton ; at five at Rose Green. And hitherto, as is my 
day, so is my strength." 

In May 1739, the first stone of a Methodist meeting-house was 
laid in Bristol ; and some difficulty arising concerning the liability 
of the feoffees nominated in the first instance, with regard to the 
expences of erection, Mr. Wesley was induced to take the whole 
into his own hands ; and this laid the foundation of the unlimited 
power he obtained over his followers, and which the present manag- 
ing body of ministers has inherited froin him. Whatever chapels 
were subsequently built by the connection, were all either vested 
in him, or in trustees bound to give admission to the pulpit, as he 
should direct. It has been thought that his original plan was to 
form a union of clergymen for the more effectual attainment of his 
grand object, the conversion of sinners by means of their joint 
efforts, but the reluctance of ministers of the establishment to co- 
operate with him, reduced him to the necessity of taking the reins 
of government into his own hands, appointing the preachers and 
employing them as itinerants among the different societies in the 
connection : at the same time he assumed as his unalienable right 
the power of nominating those preachers ; and thus, as the societies 
encreased, his authority received indefinite augmentation. 

Mr. Wesley's preaching, during the summer he spent at Bristol^ 
was attended with some extraordinary circumstances, which made 
much noise and gave no little offence. On one occasion, some persons 



214 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

are said to have trembled from head to foot ; others fell down and 
cried with a loud and bitter cry, while a third class became speech- 
less, and seemed convulsed, as if in the agonies of death. After 
prayer for them, many rose up rejoicing in God, and declaring 
they had " redemption through the blood of Christ, even the for- 
giveness of sins according to the riches of his grace." Some after- 
wards said, they had so strong a representation of Christ, in their 
mind at the time, that it seemed like a vision of him " evidently set 
forth crucified among them," and in that moment they were enabled 
to believe on him. Others pretended they had a similar represen- 
tation of him in a dream, and through faith, received the remission 
of sins. Similar extravagant things took place under the preach- 
ing of Mr. Whitefield, particularly at Cambuslang, near Glasgow 
in North Britain, 

Mr. Wesley was not a little perplexed, what to make of these 
extraordinary things. Hitherto he had not considered agitations, 
visions, or dreams, as any evidence of a true conversion to God ; 
but rather as adventitious or accidental circumstances, which from 
various causes, might, or might not attend it, and this view of them 
he thought perfectly consistent with scripture. But when he found 
the persons so affected, maintained their integrity, and walked con- 
sistent with their profession, he inclined to regard it as a real work 
of grace on the hearts of men, and spake of it under that view. 
This raised up a host of adversaries who reproached the whole as 
fanaticism and enthusiasm. Among other ministers to whom, from 
time to time, Mr. Wesley gave a particular account of whatever tran- 
spired, was Mr. Ralph Erskine, the Seceder minister in Scotland, 
who thus remarked concerning them. " Whatever influence, 
sudden and sharp awakenings may have upon the body, I pretend 
not to explain ; but, I make no question, Satan, so far as he gets 
power, may exert himself, on such occasions, partly to hinder the 
good work, in the persons thus touched with the sharp arrows of 
conviction, and partly to disparage the work of God, as if it tended 
to lead people to distraction. However, the merciful issue of the 
conflicts in the conversion of the persons thus affected, is the main 
thing."_ Mr. Wesley, while he cautioned the people against any 
delusive dependance upon these things, as " not the fruits whereby 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S 2\5 

they must be judged," thought himself justified in pointing to the 
changes which were wrought upon several who, " till then, many- 
ways wicked," had become from that time, " in the whole tenor of 
their lives, holy and just and good." I will shew you," says he, 
" him that was a lion till then, and is now a lamb ; him that was 
a drunkard, and is now exemplarily sober ; him that was dissipated 
and lewd, now abhorring the very garment spotted by the flesh," 

Mr. Samuel Wesley, his eldest brother, would not admit this 
criterion of conversion to God, and put a more unfavourable con- 
struction on the outward circumstances attending his brother's 
preaching. A long correspondence took place between the two 
brothers, on the subjects of regeneration and the grounds of assur- 
ance of. the forgiveness of sin, and of personal interest in Christ; 
but it is far too long to be gone into in this place. That the assur- 
ance of hope, or a knowledge of personal interest in the favour of 
God, and the blessings of Christ's redemption, is attainable by the 
believer, is manifest from the numerous exhortations interspersed 
throughout the apostolic epistles for Christians to press after it ; 
for surely the inspired apostles would not have urged the disciples 
to follow after that which is unattainable ! Whereas their language 
is, " Give diligence to make your calling and election sure — for if 
ye do these things ye shall never fall." " We desire that every 
one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of 
hope unto the end." But to suppose this high privilege could be 
attained in the way Mr. John Wesley pleaded for, might well be 
doubted by his brother Samuel ; for the supposition goes to stultify 
a great part of the New Testament Scriptures, where it is always 
connected with the work of faith, and labour of love, and patience 
of hope in the Lord Jesus Christ.* 

The extraordinary scenes above alluded to, of violent agitations, 
and tremblings, and convulsive fits, and loud and bitter cries, 
which Mr. Wesley concluded to be a work of grace, or the effects 
of Divine influence on the hearts of men, will not bear examina- 
tion by the test of truth, the word of the apostles ; and it is deeply 
to be regretted that he gave any countenance to such unseemly 



• See 1 Thesg. i. 3, &c»j Heb. vi. 10—12; 2 Pet. i. 5—11. 



216 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

doings. It fostered enthusiasm and gave a high sanction to fanati- 
cism, which spread its baneful influence throughout numerous 
societies, and even yet is far from being extinct among the Metho- 
dists. The HOPE of a Christian is rationally to be accounted for ; 
it has no dependence on such unnatural effects as are above de- 
scribed ; but on the resurrection of Christ from the dead, who was 
" delivered for our offences and mised again for our justification.' 
This is the grand fact to which all the apostles bare witness, and it 
is the basis, or foundation principle, of the hope of every real 
Christian, of all that hope which maketli not ashamed, and will 
not disappoint the sinner in the hour of need. The whole of 
Clmstianity rests upon this truth, the resurrection of Christ from 
the dead; for, as the apostle tells the Corinthians, " if Christ be 
not raised from the dead, our preaching is vain — your faith is vain 
— ye are yet in your sins — and those who have fallen asleep in 
Christ are perished," 1 Cor. xv. So that the whole of Clmstianity 
stands or falls with the truth of the resurrection of Jesus. 

I am aware of only three instances in all the New Testament 
which can be considered as bearing any aflinity to those extrava- 
gant proceedings which the founder of Methodism resolved into a 
work of grace — the first is the conversion of the three thousand 
convicted Jews on the day of Pentecost, Acts, ii. — the second is 
the case of the Philippian jailer, Acts, xvi. — and tlie third is that 
of the Corinthian church, 1 Cor. xiv. ; but let each of these be 
carefully examined, and it will be found that they are far from 
sanctioning the modern 3Ietliodist convei'sions. For instance, if 
we look to the case of the three thousand Jews at Jerusalem, we 
behold a miraculous interposition of Heaven in the descent of the 
Holy Spirit on the apostles, qualifying them for speaking languages 
which they were previously ignorant of. Here was the finger of 
God manifestly interposed to awaken attention to what the apostles 
were about to say concerning Jesus of Nazareth, in whose blood 
these men had recently embrued their hands ; the man " whom 
they had taken and by wicked hands had crucified and slain," con- 
sidering him to be an impostor. And what was it that the apostles 
testified concerning him ? why, that, notwithstanding their treat- 
ment of him, as a blasphemer, he was really and truly God's own 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



217 



Son, the Lord of life and glory, the image of the invisible God, the 
first born of every creature, God manifest in human nature — and 
that the truth of this was attested by the miracle before their eyes; 
for that God had interposed in behalf of the character and claims 
of his beloved Son, by raising him from the dead, and investing 
him with all power and authority both in heaven and earth — 
" making him both Lord and Christ." Such a discovery of his 
character, supported by such convincing evidence, might well 
reach conviction to their consciences ; for, in the madness of their 
hearts, they had imprecated his blood upon their own heads and 
those of their children. Well might they cry out " Men and 
brethren, what shall we do ?" The answer of the apostles was 
Repent, and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus 
Christ, for the remission of sins," &c. i. e. Change your views of 
the character of Him whom ye lately put to death ; be persuaded 
that he is the Christ, or true Messiah, the beloved Son of God, the 
alone Saviour of lost sinners ; and to prove the sincerity of your 
faith, be baptized in his name, in obedience to his own command, 
and thus avouch yourselves to be his disciples — " Put on the Lord 
Jesus Christ," by making a visible profession of your faith in him, 
and of your hope of salvation through his death and rising again. 
All this they gladly did, and were added to the church that same 
day, in which state alone they could observe all things whatsoever 
Christ had commanded. Here is nothing about forming them into 
classes and bands — such things are unknown to the New Testa- 
ment — they belong to " the doctrines and commandments of men," 
which turn persons aside from the way of truth, the narrow path 
which leads to eternal Jife. 

Is it now asked in what the regeneration or conversion of these 
three thousand Jews consisted ? The answer is obvious, it con- 
sisted in their admitting Jesus of Nazareth to be that very person 
and character whom the apostles declared him to be — this was the 
hinge of the whole affair, the pivot on which it all turned ; and it 
corresponds exactly with what the apostle John teaches, 1 John, 
V. 1, " Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of 
God." It is nevertheless true, that " No man can call Jesus Lord, 
but by the Holy Ghost." It is his office to enlighten the under- 

2 F 



218 *xMEMOIRS OF THE LITE, MINISTRY, AND WRlTIxNGS, 

standing into the import of that scriptural proposition, and so pro- 
duce saving faith. This was the case with the Jews at Jerusalem 
on the day of Pentecost, and it is the case in every instance of real 
conversion to God ; but what affinity is there between this and the 
tremblings, and contortions^ and convulsions, and the loud and 
bitter cries which characterize the conversions in question ? 

And if we consider the case of the Philippian jailor, we shall 
find the same remarks to hold good. At the moment he received 
Paul and Silas into his custody, his heart appears to have been as 
hard as the nether mill-stone — " he thrust them into the inner 
prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks" — so well disposed 
was he to concur with the magistrates in all their sanguinary pro- 
ceedings towards the servants of the Lord. But here again we 
find Heaven interposing by means of an earthquake, which shook 
the prison to its foundation — threw open the doors — and awoke 
the jailer, who, suspecting the prey to have escaped him, was on 
the eve of committing suicide. In the anguish of his soul, he cries 
out, " What must I do to be saved ?" Paul and Silas return the 
very same answer to this Gentile sinner that Peter had done to the 
unbelieving Jews—" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou 
shalt be saved — and they spake the word of the Lord to him and 
to all that were in his house." And the reception of this doctrine 
into his mind, through Divine teaching, eflfectually changed the 
whole man — old things passed away, and all things became new 
with him. The fruits of his faith instantly appeared in his kind 
and courteous treatment of the apostles, and in his being baptized 
in his name. What is there then in this to countenance the con- 
versions in question? All is simple, rational, straight-forward, 
perfectly in character with the holy religion of the meek and lowly 
Jesus, and the genius of the Gospel dispensation. There is nothing 
of enthusiasm or rant — nothing that can justly give the infidel and 
scolFer an occasion to mock ! 

In the proceedings of the church at Corinth, indeed, we meet 
with something more akin to the scenes which have too often been 
witnessed in some Methodist societies of our day — and may yet be 
witnessed. Not only did females step out of their places in the 
body, to engage in public prayer and teaching, but even the men 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



S19 



who possessed supernatural gifts, exercised them ostentatiously, 
speaking two or three at a time, and in unknown tongues. But 
■what does an inspired apostle say to all this ? Why, he condemns 
it in toto, declares that their proceedings justly exposed their 
religion to contempt, and gave men occasion to say that they were 
mad ! And could less be said of the proceedings of certain 
societies in our day ? The holy apostle, who was fired with 
jealousy for the honour of his Divine Master and the glory of his 
religion, proceeds to rectify these scandalous doings — he commands 
the women to keep silence in the churches, and if they would learn 
any thing to ask their husbands at home — the gifted brethren are 
to speak only one at a time, and to let all they say be conducive to 
general edification In short, to *' let all things be done decently 
and in order," for God is not the author of confusion, but of peace 
in all the churches of the saints. It really would appear, from the 
proceedings of certain religionists in our day, that they had totally 
lost sight of these lessons of instruction, or forgotten that such 
things are in the Bible. Woe to those that countenance them ! 

After a short absence m London, Mr. Wesley returned to Bristol, 
where he continued his labours with increasing success. Of the 
fruits of his labour, the following extract of a letter which he ad- 
dressed to a friend, dated November 27th, 1739, gives a pleasing 
specimen : — " There are few persons who have lived long enough in 
the West of England, who have not heard of the colliers of Kings- 
wood, a people famous from the beginning hitherto, for neither fearing 
God nor regarding man : so ignorant of the things of God, that 
they seemed but one, remove from the beasts that perish, and 
therefore utterly without desire of instruction, as well as without 
the means of it. Many, last winter, used tauntingly to say to Mr. 
Whitefield, * If he will convert, why does he not go to the colliers 
of Kingswood ?' In spring he did so. When he was called away, 
others went into the highways and hedges, to compel them to 
come in; and, by the grace of God, their labour was not in vain. 
The scene is already changed. Kingswood does not now, as a 
year ago, resound with cursing and blasphemy. It is no more 
filled with drunkenness and uncleanness, and the idle diversions 
that naturally lead thereto. It is no longer full of wars and fight- 



220 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



ings, of clamour and bitterness, of wrath and envyings : peace and 
love are there. Great numbers of people are mild, gentle, and 
easy to be entreated. Hardly is their voice heard in the streets, 
or, indeed, in their own Wood, unless when they are at their usual 
evening devotion, singing praise unto God their Saviour." 

During Mr. Wesley's continuance at Bristol, his brother, Mr. 
Charles Wesley, and his friends in London, had constant inter- 
course with the Moravians, who met in Fetter Lane, Holborn, and 
this led to frequent disputations between the parties, in conse- 
quence of which Mr. John Wesley was summoned to town. But 
instead of healing the breach, it grew wider and wider ; so that, 
foreseeing a division inevitable, the latter took a large building 
w^hich had been formerly occupied as a cannon-foundrj' for the 
government, situated in the neighbourhood of Moorfields, and 
fitted it up as a place of worship, which building continued for 
many years to retain the name of the " Foundry" — and hence 
Macgowan's satirical pamphlet, entitled " The Foundry Budget 
opened." At length the schism took place in the Moravian 
society, and the Seceders were found to be, according to some 
accounts, only eighteen ; but others say about twenty- five men, and 
twice that number of women, who now continued to hold their 
public assemblies at the Foundry." 

Hitherto, Mr. Whitefield had laboured in union and harmony 
with the two Wesleys. They preached in the same pulpits, and 
professed to have only one object in common — to promote the 
knowledge of the Gospel, and a holy conversation among the 
people, without entering into the discussion of particular points of 
doctrine. But, while Mr. Whitefield was prosecuting his mis- 
sionary labours in America, Mr. John Wesley published a sermon 
against the doctrine of Divine predestination, and transmitted a 
copy of it to a gentleman at Charlestown, where Mr. Whitefield 
met with it. Though the subject was treated in that sermon in a 
general way, without naming or pointing at any individual, yet 
Mr. Whitefield felt hurt that his friend and brother should bring 
forward the contrary, and publicly oppose a doctrine which 
hitherto they had both considered to be agreeable to the Word of 
God. While on his passage to England, therefore, he took an 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. I)., F. A. S. 



221 



opportunity of writing to Mr. Charles Wesley, expostulating with 
him and his brother on the subject. Referring to an answer to the 
sermon which he printed, both in America and England, Mr. 
Whitefield says, If it occasion a strangeness between us, it shall 
not be my fault. There is nothing in my answer exciting to it, 
that I know of. O, my dear brethren ! my heart almost bleeds 
within me. Methinks I could be willing to tarry here on the 
waters for ever, rather than come to England to oppose you." A 
separation, however, took place between them, so far as to have 
different places of worship, each retaining and defending his own 
sentiments, and some warm and tart expressions dropped from 
each, an almost inevitable result of controversy. From this time 
the history of methodism necessarily branches out into two distinct 
rivers or streams — the Calvinistic and Arminian — the former sup- 
ported by Mr. Whitefield, the latter by Mr. Wesley. This division 
took place in the year 1741. 

Mr. Wesley having now taken his stand, proceeded without de- 
lay to reduce Methodism to its form and consistency, in doing 
which it is deeply to be regretted that he was so full of his own 
wisdom and his own plans as to have little or no ear to give to 
what the Spirit saith unto the churches." Instead of having re- 
course to the New Testament for wisdom and direction, and care- 
fully tracing out the pattern of the churches which in Judea were 
first in Christ Jesus — the persons proper to constitute members and 
oftice bearers— the ordinances to be observed — the laws by which 
they are to be regulated — the discipline to be exercised, and the 
rule by which they should walk so as to please God and adorn 
their profession, he availed himself of just so much of the primitive 
church order and worship as coincided with his own views of pro- 
priety and fitness, regarding them as prudential regulations, not 
divine laws emanating from the fountain of eternal wisdom, and 
rejected tlie rest as unworthy of attention. It is difficult to imagine 
that he himself could labour under so fatal a mistake as to confound 
Methodism with primitive Christianity ; for every one who has 
studied the New Testament to any good purpose, and derived his 
religion from the Bible, must be aware of their dissimilarity in 
various important particulars; nor does Mr. Wesley appear to 



222 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

have had any notion of reducing his societies to the scriptural 
standard. Such a plan he was perfectly aware would never do — 
it would undermine the foundation of all his own clerical conse- 
quence and in place of exalting him to the superiority of a " Ponti- 
fex Maximus," put him upon a level with the humblest of his 
brethren. To trace his history through half a century, viz. from 
1741 to 1791, would occupy volumes and must not be here attempt- 
ed. Suffice it to say that Mr. Wesley and his associates extended 
their preaching tours from the Land's end in Cornwall to the 
county of Northumberland — societies were collected in all directions, 
to whom his rules and regulations were delivered — the number of 
lay preachers increased rapidly, and in 1744, Monday, June 25th, 
and five following days, the first Methodist Conference was held in 
London — it consisted of his brother Charles, two or three other 
clergymen, and a few of the preachers whom he had appointed to 
come from various parts, to confer with him on the affairs of the 
societies. " Our object" says Mr Wesley, " was, seriously to con- 
sider by what means we might most effectually save our souls and 
them that heard us ; and the result of our consultations we set 
down to be the rule of our future practice." So advantageous was 
this first Conference found to be, that a Conference heis been held 
annually ever since, Mr. Wesley having presided at forty-seven such 
meetings of the preachers in propria persona. 

From the increase of societies it became necessary to divide the 
kingdom into circuits, to which certain preachers were for a time 
appointed, and then removed to others. The superintendance of 
the whole was vested in the two brothers, but more especially in 
Mr. John Wesley. The aimual Conferences, therefore, afforded an 
opportunity of conversing on important points of doctrine, and of 
devising such rules of discipline as circumstances might require. 
In the meetings of Conference, the subjects of deliberation were 
proposed in the form of questions, which were amply discussed, 
and the questions with the answers agreed upon, were written down 
and afterwards printed, under the title of " minutes of Conference 
between the Rev. Mr. Wesley and others j " and the title is con- 
tinued, with no other alteration than that which the death of Mr. 
Wesley made necessary. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL D., F.A.S. 223 

The indefatigable labours of, and great success which accom- 
panied, Mr. Wesley, excited the jealousy of the regular clergy who 
made loud complaints against him ; and this determined Jiim, 
when at Newcastle, in March, 1745, to draw up a statement of the 
case between him and them, which was generally circulated. He 
tells them what constitutes the substance of his own preaching — 
the motives by which he was influenced — the opposition they had 
raised against him, by excluding him from their churches — and, in 
conclusion, tells them, that if the breach continue, it is chargeable 
on them and on them only ! He desired a union and co-operation 
with the established clergy, but in that he was disappointed ; nor 
indeed was it rationally to be expected. He was every where 
thinning their congregations, and drawing olf persons from their 
communion whom he formed into societies subject to his own rules 
and regulations, in a way very inimical to the interest of Mother 
Church ; and it is needless to dwell upon a description of the de- 
plorable state to which Methodism, among other things, has now 
reduced her. 

In the year 1745, Mr. Wesley was engaged in a singular corres- 
pondence with a clergyman of high station in the church, and of 
considerable abilities. He concealed his real name under the as- 
sumed one of John Smith, and debated some points in Mr. Wesley's 
system of doctrines, and also his uncanonical proceedings, with 
much candour and skill. The letters have been recently published 
by Henry Moore who affirms that Mr. Wesley's correspondent was 
one of the Archbishops (probably Herring, who was Archbishop 
of York in 1745, and raised to the see of Canterbury in 1747.) It 
is probable both parties profited by this controversy, which was 
carried on privately for two or three years. 

In some of his printed pieces, Mr. Wesley took occasion to ani- 
madvert on the writings and practices of the Moravians, which 
induced Count Zinzendorf, then at the head of the United Brethren, 
to advertise the public, that he and his brethren had no connection 
with the Wesleys, and concluded with a prophecy, that " they 
would soon run their heads against a wall." Mr. Wesley con- 
tented himself with coolly remarking, " We will not, if we can 
help it." 



224s MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

As a specimen of the rough treatment which the Methodist 
preachers of that day had to encounter, let it suffice to adduce the 
following instances, which are to be found in Mr. Wesley's Journal, 
under the year 1748. " On the 26th of August," says he, " while 
I was speaking to some quiet people at Roughley, near Colne, in 
Lancashire, a drunken rabble came, the captain of whom said, he 
was a deputy constable and I must go with him. I had scarce 
gone ten yards, when one of his company struck me in the face 
with all his might. Another threw his stick at my head. All the 
rest were like as many ramping and roaring lions. They brought 
me with Mr. Grimshaw, of Haworth ; Mr. Colbeck, of Keighley ; 
and Mr. Mackford, of Newcastle, who never recovered from the 
abuse he then received, into a public house at Barrowford, a 
neighbouring village, where all their forces were gathered together. 
Soon after, Mr. Hargreaves the high constable came and required 
me to promise I would come to Roughley no more. This I flatly 
refused; but upon saying 'I will not preach here now,' he under- 
took to quiet the mob. While he and I walked out at one door, 
Mr. Grimshaw and Mr. Colbeck went out at the other. The mob 
immediately closed them in, and tossed them to and fro with the 
greatest violence, threw Mr. Grimshaw down, and loaded them 
with dirt and mire of every kind. The other quiet harmless 
people who followed me at a distance they treated full as ill. 
They poured upon them showers of dirt and stones, without any 
regard to age or sex. Some of them they trampled in the mire, 
and dragged by the hair of the head. Many they beat with their 
clubs without mercy. One they forced to leap from a rock, ten or-^ 
twelve feet high, into the river ; and when he crept out wet and 
bruised, they were hardly persuaded not to throw him in again. 
Such was the recompence we frequently received from our country- 
men, for our labour of love." 

About this time Mr. Wesley formed a determination to marry, and 
had fixed his affections on a Mrs. Grace Murray, a very pious and 
respectable woman. But the affair coming to the knowledge of 
his brother, Mr. Charles Wesley, before the marriage took place, 
the latter found means to prevent it, for reasons which appeard to 
him sufficiently weighty to justify his interference in the matter. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



225 



Mr. John Wesley, however, thought otherwise, and this was the 
first step to a breach of that harmony which had now subsisted 
between the brothers, without intermission, for more than twenty 
years. 

Notwithstanding this disappointment, however, Mr. Wesley per- 
sisted in his determination to take a wife, and having fixed his 
choice of a partner, he proposed the matter to his friend Mr. 
Perronet, of Shoreham, who gave his approbation of the matter. 
The lady was a Mrs. Vizelle, a widow, of the Baptist persuasion, 
and of independent fortune, which was all settled upon herself 
previous to their union taking place, Mr. Wesley disinterestedly 
refusing to have the command of one shilling of her property. The 
marriage, nevertheless, was far from being a happy one. Mr. 
Wesley's constant habit of travelling from place to place through- 
out Great Britain and Ireland, the number of persons who came to 
visit him wherever he was, and his extensive correspondence with 
the members of the society, were circumstances unfavourable to 
that social intercourse, mutual kindness, and confidence, whicli 
form the basis of connubial bliss. These circumstances indeed 
might not have operated so unfavourably, had he married one who 
could have entered into his views and feelings, and have accommo- 
dated herself to his very peculiar situation ; but that was not the 
case. Had he searched the kingdom throughout, he could scarcely 
have found an individual more unsuitable in these respects than 
the lady whom he married. 

Mrs. Vizelle appears, from some of her letters still extant, to 
have been a person of cultivated mind ; and, from the testimony of 
those who knew her, she evinced other qualities calculated to in- 
crease the comfort and usefulness of Mr. Wesley. But whatever 
good qualities she possessed before she became Mrs. Wesley, they 
were in a little time all swallowed up in the unhappy passion of 
jealousy. For some time she travelled with him from place to 
place ; but getting tired of this ambulatory course of life, and not 
being able to bind him down to a more domestic course, this tor- 
menting passion increased upon her. Had she properly under- 
stood her husband's character, she would never have given place 
to such a feeling ; but the spirit of jealousy took possession of her 

2 G 



MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



mind and impelled her to very unwarrantable actions. It has 
been affirmed, that she would travel a hundred miles for the pur- 
pose of watching from a window, who was sitting beside him in the 
carriage when he entered a town. She searched his pockets, 
opened his letters, put letters and papers into the hands of his 
enemies that they might be made use of to injure his character, 
and at times was so outrageous as to lose all command of herself, 
even to tear his hair and proceed to blows. She repeatedly left 
his house, and upon his earnest entreaties returned again ; till, 
after having thus disquieted twenty years of his life, and still more 
so her own, she seized on part of his journals and many of his 
other papers, and totally abandoned him, house and home, leaving 
word that she never intended to return. He simply states the fact 
in his journal, saying that he knew not what the cause of offence 
had been, and laconically adds — Non earn reliqui, non dimisi, non 
revocalo : " I have not forsaken her — I did not send her a-packing 
• — I will never fetch her back again." 

But bad as this conduct certainly was on the part of Mrs. 
Wesley, she is accused of things still worse, and such as no excuse 
can justify. She is said to have interpolated several letters which 
she intercepted, and did it in such a manner as to make them 
bear a construction unfavourable to her husband's reputation. 
Some of these she read to her friends privately, and especially to 
Mr. Wesley's opponents, introducing comments of her own in the 
same tone of voice, so artfully as to make them pass for part of the 
letters, but taking special care that no one should see or be allowed 
to read the letters but herself ; and in one or two instances she 
published interpolated letters in the public prints. This must 
have been sufficiently annoying to any one ; but Mr. Wesley, 
conscious of his own integrity, and the uprightness of his conduct, 
scarcely deigned to take any notice of them, being determined to 
live down his calumniators. 

In April 1751, Mr. Wesley paid his first visit to Scotland, 
whither he was invited by Colonel Galatin, who was then quartered 
at Musselburgh. His strain of preaching, however, did not suit 
the sober minded Scotch people, and his success was not compara- 
ble to that in England. They were shocked at his doctrine of 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. U., F. A.S. 22? 

sinless perfection ; and, in the dialect of their country, denominated 
him, " Joan Wasley, the parfactionist — the Mon-o'-Sin !" In the 
course of the same year, Mr. Charles Wesley proceeded to the 
North of England, for the purpose of inquiring more particularly 
into the character and moral conduct of the preachers on their 
respective stations. He found one or two whose conduct and 
deportment had little tendency to recommend their doctrine ; and 
some others whom he considered unqualified for preaching. Dur- 
ing the progress of this inquiry, Mr. John Wesley frequently 
wrote to his brother, communicating such hints as occurred to him 
relative to this important affair. There was a constitutional differ- 
ence between the two brothers as to their qualifications for this 
work. If the one was too easy, the other occasionally erred in the 
contrary extreme. For the sake of securing the advantages and 
guarding against the evils of both, it was agreed between them, by 
the advice of their mutual friend Mr. Perronet, that they should act 
in concert with respect to the preachers, so that none should be 
either admitted or refused but on the authority of both. This 
arrangement, however, did not long remain in force. Mr. Charles 
Wesley had married, and domestic cares naturally and properly 
occupied more of his attention than while he was single. He 
sometimes differed in opinion from his brother, whom he was 
desirous, both from principle and feeling, not to oppose if he could 
avoid it. He also felt and acknowledged the general superiority of 
his brother, notwithstanding what he deemed erroneous in some 
parts of his plans, in the exercise of governing so complex and ex- 
tensive a body as the Methodists had now become. He conse- 
quently withdrew gradually from this part of the work, and con- 
fined himself to local ministrations in the chapels in and about 
town, occasionally visiting the more important of the distant 
stations. The entire controul and management of the societies and 
preachers thus falling into the hands of Mr. John Wesley, he bent 
the whole force of his mind to the object — met and encountered 
difficulties as they arose, and generally surmounted them; and 
when that was impossible, he expertly yielded to them, thereby 
diminishing their force, until, at length, he moulded the whole 



228 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



system into that form which it had assumed at his death, and 
which it substantially retains at this day. 

In 1753 Mr. Wesley repeated his visit to Scotland on the invi- 
tation of Dr. Gillies, of Glasgow ; but he remained there only five 
days, during which, however, he preached to large and attentive 
congregations. In the summer he visited the Isle of Wight, and 
found at Newport, a little society which had been raised by one of 
the preachers. Remaining here a short time, he laboured with his 
usual vigour and acceptance, and found afterwards that he had not 
laboured in vain. In the Autumn of this year, after his return to 
London, he suffered repeated attacks of cold, which produced such 
effects upon him as to threaten his life. Fearing a consumption, 
he consulted Dr. Fothergill, by whose advice he retired to Lew- 
isham, for the benefit of rest and country air, as the only probable 
means of his recovery. Here, not knowing how it might please 
God to dispose of him, and wishing, as he said, " to prevent vile 
panegyric," he wrote the following epitaph, which he desired " if 
any," should be placed on his tomb stone. 

THE BODY OF JOHN WESLEY, 
A BRAND PLUCKED OUT OF THE BURNING ; 
WHO DIED OF A CONSUMPTION IN THE FIFTY-FIRST YEAR OF HIS AGE ; 
NOT LEAVING, AFTER HIS DEBTS ARE PAID, 
TEN POUNDS BEHIND HIM I 
PRAYING 

God be merciful to me an unprojitable Servant'' 

During this illness of Mr. Wesley, his old friend Mr. Whitefield, 
addressed a letter to him, which shows the fulness of affection that 
he still entertained for him, notwithstanding their differences of 
doctrinal sentiment. The letter is to be found in several Memoirs 
of Whitefield. 

As soon as Mr. Wesley was able to encounter the journey, he 
removed from Lewisham to the hot-wells, near Bristol, where 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D,, F. A. S.. 229 

through the favour of heaven, he was gradually restored to health, 
though he remained for some time an invalid. Intent upon im- 
proving his time, he here began his Notes upon the New Testa- 
ment, which he afterwards published in a quarto volume — a work 
of sterling ability, and inferior in usefulness to no other production 
of his pen. During his confinement his place was supplied by his 
brother Charles, who visited the different societies, and preached 
among them. 

In 1755, the annual Conference was held at Leeds, when a 
subject which had often formed the topic of conversation was for- 
mally discussed. " The point," says Mr. Wesley, " on which we 
desired all the preachers to speak their minds at large, was, whether 
we ought to separate from the church. Whatever was advanced, 
on one side or the other, was seriously and calmly considered, and 
on the third day we were all fully agreed m this general conclusion 
that, whether it was lawful or not, it was no way expedient." 
Afterwards, however, in order to ma,ke full provision for the spiri- 
tual wants of the people, he so far relaxed as to allow of preaching 
in church hours, under certain circumstances, a practice which has 
long since become general. In 1756, he printed a plain, affectionate, 
and powerful " Address to the Clergy," for the purpose of securing 
their co-operation with him, and with a view of rendering separa- 
tion unnecessary — but he might as well have whistled to the wind ! 
The clergy were, like Moab of old, " settled on their lees." 

About this time Mr. Wesley thus writes : " I mentioned to our 
congregation in London, a means of increasing serious religion, 
which had been frequently practised by our forefathers — the join- 
ing in a covenant to serve God with all our heart and with all our 
soul. I explained this for several mornings following ; and on 
Friday many of us kept a fast unto the Lord, beseeching him to 
give us wisdom and strength, that we might ' promise unto the 
Lord our God and keep it.' On Monday at six in the evening, we 
met for that purpose, at the French church, in Spitalfields. After 
I had recited the tenor of the covenant proposed, in the words of 
that blessed man, Richard AUeine, all the people stood up, in 
token of assent, to the number of about eighteen hundred. Such 
a sight I scarce ever knew before. Surely the fruit of it shall re- 



230 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE;, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

main for ever." The covenant, in which there seems something 
of the Judaizing cast, has been renewed once every year since 
that time. 

Mr. Walker of Truro in Cornwall, had some correspondence 
with Mr. Wesley, at this juncture, in which he advised him to get 
the ablest of his preachers ordained, and to fix the rest in different 
societies, not as preachers, but as readers, and by this means break 
up the Itinerant plan. Mr. Wesley hesitated to adopt this counsel, 
adducing among other things, as a reason of non-compliance, the 
success which had attended the labours of these itinerants. And 
with regard to frequent change of preachers," Mr. Wesley observes, 
" be their talents ever so great, they will ere long grow dead 
themselves." And so strongly did he feel what he conceived to be 
the necessity of this measure, that he adds, I know, were I my- 
self to preach one whole year in one place, I should preach both 
myself and most of my congregation asleep." 

Mr. Wesley spent several months of the year 1760 in Ireland 
visiting Dublin and most parts of the kingdom. Dr. Barnard, 
Bishop of Derry, the friend of Johnson and of Burke, highly 
esteemed Mr. Wesley, and wrote to him expressing his disappoint- 
ment at not having had an interview with hira, and praying for the 
blessing of heaven upon his labours. 

Always solicitous to remove defects both in himself and others — • 
and hearing of some disputes and heart-rendings among the 
preachers, Mr. Wesley took occasion to preach before Conference 
from the words of the apostle James : In many things we offend 
all." In handling his subject he took occasion to observe (how 
far consistently with the doctrine of sinless perfection, it is not 
very easy to say) — that, as long as we live, our soul is connected 
with the body — as long as it is thus connected, it cannot but think 
with the help of bodily organs — as long as these organs are imper- 
fect, we are liable to mistakes, both speculative and practical — a 
mistake may occasion my loving a good man less than I ought, 
which is a defective, that is, a wrong temper — for all these we need 
the atoning blood (of Christ) as indeed for every defect or omis- 
sion — therefore, all men have need to say daily, " forgive us our 
TRESPASSES." Surely, Mr. Wesley, at this time, could not have 
been a perfectionist \ 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. I>., F. A. S. 



231 



In the year 1764, the Conference was held at Bristol, where 
Mr. Wesley was gratified on finding himself surrounded by several 
pious clergymen. " I have long desired," said he, " in connectioa 
with this circumstance, that there might be an open, avowed union 
between all who preach those fundamental truths, original sin, and 
justification by faith, producing inward and outward holiness ; but 
hitherto all my endeavours have been ineffectual." He made ano- 
ther attempt, however, to attain this object by addressing a circular 
letter to all the serious clergymen that he knew. But though he 
sent to more than thirty, he received answers from only three ; 
so that the fond project fell to the ground, and Mr. Wesley was re- 
duced to the necessity of relying on his own resources. 

Mr. Wesley pursued his travels and labours, in 1765, with his 
usual diligence and punctuality, visiting the societies throughout 
Great Britain, Wales, and Ireland. In October, he writes, " I 
breakfasted with Mr. Whitefield, who seemed to be an old, old 
man, fairly worn out in his master's service, though he has hardly 
seen fifty years. And yet it pleases God that I who am now in my 
sixty-third year, find no disorder, no weakness, no decay, no difl?er- 
ence from what I was at five and twenty ; only that I have fewer 
teeth, and more grey hairs." Of Mr. Whitefield he further observes, 

he breathes nothing but peace and love ; bigotry cannot stand 
before him, but hides its head wherever he comes." Mr. Whitefield 
lived about five years after this, and Mr. Wesley more than twen- 
ty-five. 

At the Conference of 1769, Mr. Wesley read a paper the object 
of which was to bind the preachers in connection with him, by a 
closer tie, and to provide for the continuance of their union after 
his death. This appears to have been his first sketch of an eccle- 
siastical constitution for the body, and it chiefly consisted in the 
entire delegation of the power which he had always exercised, to a 
committee of preachers to be chosen by the rest when assembled in 
Conference. Another and more eligible provision was subsequently 
made ; but this shews that he had even then given up all hope of 
union with the established church. 

In consequence of the emigration of some members of the society 
from England and Ireland, Methodism had begun to take root ir. 



232 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

America : accordingly, at this Conference, Mr. Wesley enquired 
of the preachers whether any of them felt disposed to cross the 
Atlantic and help forward the cause in the Western world. Two 
only re-echoed to the call, Messrs. Boordman and Pilmore ; these 
gentlemen volunteered their services, and were accordingly sent to 
take charge of the societies. Their mission was successful, and 
since then the cause has greatly flourished there. 

In the spring of the year 1770, we find Mr. Wesley as usual, 
prosecuting his indefatigable labours in different parts of the king- 
dom. To adopt the language of one of his biographers, his Jour- 
nals present a picture of unwearied exertion, and in themselves 
form ample volumes of great interest, not merely as a record of his 
labours, but from their miscellaneous and generally instructive 
character. At one time he is seen braving the storms and tempests, 
fearless of the snows of winter and the heats of summer : then with 
a deep susceptibility of all that is beautiful and grand in nature, 
recording the pleasures produced by a smiling landscape, or by 
mountain scenery. Here turning aside to view some curious object 
of nature ; there some splendid mansion of the great, making all 
things contribute to devotion and cheerfulness. Anon, we trace 
him into his proper work, preaching in crowded chapels, or to mul- 
titudes collected in the most public resorts in towns, or in the most 
picturesque places of their vicinity. Now he is seen by the side of 
the sick or the dying ; and then surrounded by his associates, ut- 
tering his pastoral admonitions. An interesting and instructive 
letter occasionally occurs ; then a jet of playful and good humoured 
wit upon his persecutors, or the stupidity of his casual hearers. 
Perhaps an apparition story is given as he heard it, and of which 
his readers are left to judge, though sometimes not without a hint 
of his own tendency to a belief of it : and often we meet with a 
grateful record of providential escapes, from the falls of his horses, 
or from the violence of mobs. Notices of books also appear, which 
are often just and striking, always short and characteristic ; and as 
he read much on his journeys, they are very frequent. 

About this time a controversy arose, which excited great interest, 
both among the Methodists and the Evangelical clergy, and was for 
a while attended with very painful feelings. In printing the larger 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 233 

minutes of Conference, this year, Mr. Wesley took occasion to in- 
troduce several incautious and unguarded expressions relative to the 
five points which divide the Arminians and Calvinists. This called 
forth Mr. Toplady, Sir Richard Hill, and other champions of 
orthodoxy in defence of their distinguishing tenets, and a flame was 
kindled which burned fiercely for some years. Mr. Wesley, how- 
ever, engaged but slightly in the matter : he owned he had not ex- 
pressed himself with all the caution and accuracy that he ought to 
have done ; but not choosing personally to engage in the dispute, 
he left the task of defending or explaining his statements to the 
able pen of Mr. Fletcher of Madeley. The health and strength of 
Mr. Wesley were wonderfully preserved, which was a great advan- 
tage to all parties. In 1774 he reached his 72nd year, and on that 
occasion thus expressed himself. " This being my birthday, I was 
considering, how is this that I find the same strength as I did 
thirty years ago ? that my sight is considerably better now, and 
my nerves firmer than they were then ? that I have none of the 
infirmities of old age, and have lost several I had in my youth ? 
The grand cause is the good pleasure of God, who doeth whatso- 
ever pleaseth him. The chief means are, 1. my constantly rising 
at four for about fifty years. 2. My generally preaching at five in 
the morning, one of the most healthy exercises in the world. 3. My 
never travelling less, by sea or land, than four thousand five hundred 
miles in the year." Not long, afterwards, however, he was ad- 
monished of his frailty and mortality ; for in 1 775, during a tour 
in the north of Ireland, he had a dangerous sickness, occasioned by 
sleeping on the ground in an orchard, in the hot weather, which 
he says he had been " accustomed to do for forty years without 
ever being injured by it." He was slow to admit that old age had 
arrived, or he expected long to triumph over its infirmities. The 
consequence, in this case, however, was, that after manfully strug- 
gling with the incipient symptoms of the complaint, and attempting 
to throw them ofi" by reading, journeying, and preaching, he lapsed 
into a severe fever, from which after lying insensible for some days, 
he recovered with extraordinary rapidity and resumed the services 
to which he was so much devoted. 

The American war now commenced, and Mr. Wesley's Tory 

2H 



234 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

principles leading him to take the side of the mother country 
against the colonists, he published a pamphlet on the subject of 
the quarrel, entitled " A Calm Address to the American Colonies." 
Having formerly expressed different sentiments, this publication 
led him into some unpleasant altercations at home. The copies 
shipped for America were laid hold of by a friend who suppressed 
them ; so that the work remained unknown in the colonies till a 
considerable time afterwards — a fortunate incident probably for 
the infant cause, which succeeded better for being free from all 
political pledges and disputes. 

During the following year, while in London, Mr. Wesley was 
applied to, to make a return of his silver plate, in order that the 
government duty might be charged upon it ; to which he returned 
the following laconic and characteristic reply : — 

" Sir, — I have two silver tea-spoons in London and two at Bristol. 
This is all the plate which I have at present, and I shall not buy 
any more while so many around me want bread. 

I am Sir, 

Your most humble servant, 

John Wesley." 

Some of the preachers had visited the Isle of Man, and had been 
successful there. The Bishop of Sodor and Man, a bigoted high 
church man, wrote a pastoral letter to all the clergy within his 
diocese, urging them to warn their flocks against Methodism, and 
exhorting them to present all who should attend the Methodist 
meetings in the ispiritual courts, and to expel every Methodist 
preacher from the sland. To meet the gathering storm Mr. Wesley 
hastened thither, in May, 1777, and his prompt and seasonable 
visit put a stop to this exertion of Pontifical authority. He was 
cordially received by all ranks, the societies continued to flourish, 
and on his second visit Mr. Wesley found a new bishop of a more 
liberal character. 

The principal place of worship used by Mr. Wesley in London, 
had hitherto been the Foundry, in Moorfields ; but this having 
become too small for the congregation, and being moreover, gloomy 
and dilapidated, a new chapel was now erected, in the City Road. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



235 



The first stone was laid in April 1777, and on the first of Novem- 
ber in the following year, it was opened for public worship. A 
vast multitude of persons attended on the occasion, but " all was 
quietness, decency and order." Mr. Wesley addressed them from 
a part of Solomon's prayer at the Dedication of the Jewish Temple ; 
and both in the morning and afternoon, he assures us, " God was 
eminently present in the midst of the congregation." Here the two 
brothers agreed to officiate as often as possible till the congrega- 
tion should be settled, though some difference of opinion arose 
between them as to the mode of supplying the pulpit. 

In 1778, Mr. Wesley commenced the publication of The Ar- 
miuian Magazine" in which he inserted many of his sermons, and 
various other compositions both by himself and his contributors, 
with selections from his correspondence. He continued to super- 
intend the editorship of this monthly periodical while he lived, and 
it is still continued by the Conference under the title of " The Wes- 
leyan Methodist Magazine," on the same general principles as to 
its theology, but on an enlarged plan. 

The year 1780 was rendered memorable in the annals of England 
by the riots which took place in London in consequence of some 
concessions which the government thought proper to make in favour 
of the Roman Catholics. A warm controversy ensued on the sub- 
ject of these concessions, in which many pamphlets appeared on 
either side. Mr. Wesley, who was averse to any further indulgen- 
ces being granted to the Catholics, published two or three pieces 
in support of his view of the question, arguing that no one of that 
communion could give security to a Protestant government for his 
allegiance and good behaviour. What would this good man have- 
thought and said had his life been prolonged to witness what has 
since been done by an enlightened government, for that portion of 
his Majesty's subjects ? 

The progress of Methodism in America has been already 
noticed ; but it may be proper to add that about this time, some 
persons in that country who were attached to the church of Eng- 
land, applied to Mr. Wesley to use his endeavours to get a young 
man ordained for them by one of the bishops in this country. 
Dr. Robert Lowth, was at that time, bishop of London, and to him 



236 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

Mr. Wesley made application, but met with a repulse. In conse- 
quence of this Mr. Wesley addressed a letter of remonstrance to 
his Lordship, in which he says, " I mourn for poor America, for 
the sheep scattered up and down therein. Part of them have no 
shepherds at all, particularly in the Northern colonies ; and the 
case of the rest is little better, for their own shepherds pity them 
not. They cannot, for they have no pity on themselves. They 
take no thought or care about their own souls. Wishing your 
lordship every blessing from the Great Shepherd and Bishop of 
our souls, I remain &c." Mr. Wesley, however, in the year 1784, 
took upon himself that which bishop Lowth declined to do — he 
ordained Dr. Coke and Mr. Asbury bishops for America, thus 
vesting them with plenary powers to superintend the Methodist 
societies in that country, and to appoint others to th* work of the 
ministry. 

Mr. Wesley's fame and writings having reached Holland, some 
pious people in that country were desirous of seeing him ; and^ being 
pressed to undertake the journey by one of the members of the 
London society who then resided there, he was prevailed on to 
visit the United Provinces, in the year 1783, where he spent a few 
weeks, being then in his eightieth year. He preached in the epis- 
copal church of Rotterdam, " Such a congregation," he says, " had 
not often been there before. I preached on God's creating man 
* in his own image.' The people seemed, all but their attention, 
dead. In the afternoon the church was so filled, as they informed 
me, it had not been for these fifty years. I preached on ' God 
hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.' I believe 
God applied it to many hearts. Were it only for this hour, I am 
glad I came to Holland." After visiting Haaerlem, the party re- 
turned to Amsterdam, and afterwards proceeded to Utrecht. " We 
took boat, in a lovely morning," says Mr. Wesley, " in company 
with Mr. Van K.'s sister, who in the way gave us a striking account. 
' In that house,' said she, (pointing to it as we went by) 'my hus- 
band and I lived, and that church adjoining it was his church. 
Five years ago we were sitting together, being in perfect health, 
when he dropped down, and in a quarter of an hour expired. I 
lifted up my heart and said, Lord, thou art my husband now, and 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



237 



found no will but his.' This was a trial worthy of a Christian, and 
she has ever since made her word good." It was while on this 
excursion that Mr. Wesley completed his eightieth year, and the 
following are his reflections on the 28th of June. 

" I have this day lived fourscore years, and by the mercy of God, 
my eyes are not waxed dim ; and what little strength I had, of 
body or mind, thirty years since, is just the same I have now. God 
gTant that I may never live to be useless ; rather may I 

* My body and my charge lay down, 
And cease at once to work and live.' " 

Mr. Wesley returned home much pleased with his visit to Holland, 
and with the people whom he saw. " How entirely," says he, were 
we mistaken in the Hollanders, supposing them to be of a cold, 
phlegmatic, unfriendly temper. I have not met with a more warmly 
affectionate people in all Europe ! no, not in Ireland! " 

At the Bristol Conference, 1783, Mr. Wesley v/as taken so ill that 
his life was despaired of both by himself and friends. In the per- 
suasion that his change was at hand, he thus addressed one of his 
friends. " I have been reflecting on my past life : I have been 
wandering up and down between fifty and sixty years, and endea- 
vouring in my poor way, to do a little good to my fellow-creatures ; 
and now it is probable that there are but a few steps between me 
and death; and what have I to trust to for salvation ? I can see 
nothing that I have done or suffered that will bear looking at. I 
have no other plea than this : 

* I the chief of sinners am, 
But Jesus died for me.* '* 

Mr. Wesley, however, recovered this shock ; and now another 
subject which had long and anxiously engaged his attention pressed 
upon him with augmented force. The gradual increase of the con- 
nection, which he had been the chief instrument of forming, and 
its extensive ramifications, made him more than ever desirous of 
settling it upon some permanent basis, that, " after his departure" 
to the land of rest, the connection might be kept together, and the 
good work proceed without let or interruption. Aware that the 



238 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

people looked up to him as the head of the body ; and that he was, 
with respect to management, the main-spring and regulator of all 
the movements of the complicated machinery, which had long been 
in such active operation, and knowing no individual qualified to 
succeed him, he had for many years been devising the best means 
of accomplishing this object. In 1784 the measure was completed, 
to his great satisfaction. " From this time," says Mr. Watson, 
" he felt that he had nothing more to do, th?.n to spend the remain- 
der of his days, in the same spiritual labours in which he had been 
so long engaged ; and that he had done all that a true prudence re- 
quired to provide for the continuance and extension of a work 
which had so strangely enlarged under his superintendence." 

The settlement now adverted to, was effected by means of a 
legal instrument, enrolled in Chancery, called " A Deed of Decla- 
ration," in which one hundred preachers, mentioned by name, 
were declared to be " The Conference of the people called Metho- 
dists." By means of this deed, a legal description was given to 
the term " Conference," and the settlement of the chapels upon 
trustees was provided for ; so that the appointment of preachers to 
officiate in them should be vested in the Conference, as it had here- 
tofore been in Mr. Wesley. The deed also declares how the suc- 
cession and identity of the yearly Conference is to be continued, 
and contains various regulations as to the choice of a President 
and Secretary, the filling up of vacancies, expulsions, and all other 
matters connected with the societies, as forming one general con- 
nection. 

In 1786, Mr. Wesley paid a second visit to Holland, where he 
preached in various places, expounded the Scriptures to private 
companies, and engaged in conversation with many learned and 
pious individuals. The following year we find him again in 
Ireland, when his preaching was unusually successful. The fol- 
lowing remark on the Hutchinsonian System deserves notice: — 

" As to his theology, I first stumble at his profuse encomiums 
on the Hebrew language. But is it not the language which God 
himself used ? And is not Greek, too, the language which God 
himself used ? And did he not use it in delivering to man a fai 
more perfect dispensation than that he delivered in Hebrew ? Who 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 239 

can deny it ? And does not even this consideration give us reason 
at least to suspect, that the Greek language is as far superior to 
the Hebrew, as the New Testament is to the Old ? And, indeed, 
if we set prejudice aside, and consider both with attention and 
candour, can we help seeing, that the Greek excels the Hebrew, as 
much in beauty and strength, as it does in copiousness ? I sup- 
pose no one, from the beginning of the world, wrote Hebrew better 
than Moses. But does not the language of St. Paul excel the 
language of Moses, as much as the knowledge of Paul excelled 
his ? " 

On the 26th of June, he was at Dublin, from whence he thus 
writes : — " We were all agreeably surprised with the arrival of Dr. 
Coke, who came from Philadelphia in nine-and-twenty days, and 
gave us a pleasing account of the work of God in America. Thurs- 
day the 28th, I had a conversation with Mr. Howard (the philan- 
thropist) I think one of the greatest men in Europe. Nothing but 
the mighty power of God can enable him to go through his diffi- 
cult and dangerous employments. But what can hurt us if God 
be on our side ?" In August, 1787, he visited Guernsey, in com- 
pany with Dr. Coke, as has been already noticed in the Life of 
Dr. Clarke — (See page 169,) — and preached with much pleasure 
and effect in various parts of the island. It was formerly men- 
tioned, that while there he was detained by contrary winds, and 
during this detention he thus writes : — " Having now leisure, I 
finished a sermon on discerning the ' Signs of the Times.' This 
morning, I had a particular conversation, as I had once or twice 
before, with Jeannie Bisson of this town — such a young woman as 
I have hardly seen elsewhere. She seems to be wholly devoted to 
God, and to have constant communication with him. She has a 
clear and strong understanding, and I cannot perceive the least 
tincture of enthusiasm. I am afraid she will not live long. I am 
amazed at the grace of God which is in her. I think she is far 
beyond Madame Guion in deep communion with God; and I 
doubt whether I have found her fellow in England. Precious as 
my time is, it would have been worth my while to come to Jersey, 
had it been only to see this prodigy of grace." 

Notwithstanding his advanced age, Mr. Wesley continued his 



240 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND AVRITINGS, 

journeys and labours with the same punctuality, though not per- 
haps with the same vigour as usual. He still rose at four in the 
morning, and apportioned his employments to the different parts of 
the day. It was a fixed, practical rule with him, which he observed 
to the very end of life, that the man who wishes to avoid tempta- 
tion, and all foolish and hurtful habits, should be constantly em- 
ployed, and generally have a certain portion of work to do within 
a limited time. In February, 1788, we find him saying, " I took 
a solemn leave of the congregation at West Street, by applying 
once more what I had enforced fifty years before, ' By grace ye 
are saved through faith.' The next evening we had a very numer- 
ous congregation at the new chapel (City Road) to whom I 
declared the whole counsel of God. I seemed now to have finished 
my work in London. If I see it again, well ; if not, I pray God to 
raise up others, that will be more faithful, and more successful in 
his work." A month after this, viz. on the 29th of March, 1788, 
his brother, Charles Wesley died, and it operated as an admonitory 
hint of his own approaching dissolution. 

On completing his eighty-fifth year, he makes the following 
reflections: — "June 28th, 1788, I this day enter on my eighty- 
sixth year. And what cause have I to praise God, as for a 
thousand spiritual blessings, so for bodily blessings also ! How 
little have I suffered yet, by " the rush of numerous years !" It is 
true, I am not so agile as I was in times past : I do not run or 
walk so fast as I did. My sight is a little decayed. My left eye 
is grown dim, and hardly serves me to read. I have daily some 
pain in the ball of my right eye, as also in my right temple, 
occasioned by a blow received some time since, and in my right 
shoulder and arm, which I impute partly to a sprain, and partly to 
the rheumatism. I find, likewise, some decay in my memory, with 
regard to names and things lately past, but not at all with regard 
to what I have read or heard, twenty, forty, or sixty years ago. 
Neither do I find any decay in my hearing, smell, taste, or 
appetite, though I want but a third part of the food I once did ; 
nor do I feel any such thing as weariness either in travelling or 
preaching. And I am not conscious of any decay in writing 
sermons, which I do as readily, and I believe, as correctly as 
ever." 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., 1'. A S. 



241 



About this time, one or two of the preachers, and a few societies, 
were harassed by justices of the peace, on grounds that were 
entirely novel. The Methodists were told, " You profess your- 
selves members of the Church of England, therefore, your licences 
are good for nothing ; nor can you, as members of the church, 
receive any benefit from the Act of Toleration." Mr. Wesley saw 
that if the proceedings on this subtle distinction were extended 
over the nation, the Methodists must either avow themselves 
dissenters, or suffer great molestation. He therefore addressed a 
letter to one of the Episcopal bench, to the follov/ing purport : — • 

My Lord, — I am a dying man, having already one foot in the 
grave. Humanly speaking, I cannot long creep upon the earth, 
being now nearer ninety than eighty years of age. But I cannot 
die in peace, before I have discharged this office of Christian love 
to your lordship. I write without ceremony, as neither hoping 
nor fearing any thing from your lordship, or from any man living. 
And I ask in the name and in the presence of Him, to whom both 
you and I are shortly to give an account, why do you trouble those 
that are quiet in the land ? those that fear God and work righteous- 
ness ? Does your lordship know what the Methodists are ? That 
many thousands of them are zealous members of the Church of 
England, and strongly attached, not only to his Majesty, but to his 
present ministry ? Why should your lordship, setting religion out 
of the question, throw away such a body of respectable friends ? 
Is it for their religious sentiments ? Alas ! my lord, is this a time 
to persecute any man for conscience sake ? I beseech you, . my 
lord, do as you would be done to. You are a man of sense ; you 
are a man of learning; nay, I verily believe (what is of infinitely 
more value) you are a man of piety. Then think and let think-- 
and I pray God to bless you with the choicest of his blessings." 

Early in the year 1790, we find him once more at Bristol, 
whence he proceeded, preaching at several of the intermediate 
towns, to Birmingham, and thence to Madeley, in Shropshire, at 
which place he made the following entry in his Journal:— -'M 
finished my sermon on the ' Wedding Garment ;' perhaps the last that 
1 shall write. My eyes are now waxed dim — my natural force is 
abated; however, while I can, I would fain do a little for God 

2 1 



242 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

before I drop into the dust." He visited the societies in Cheshire, 
Lancashire, and the North of England once more, and for the last 
time. On his return he passed through part of Yorkshire, to Hull, 
preaching in every place as on the brink of eternity. He also 
visited Epworth, the place of his nativity, and various parts of 
Lincolnshire ; and thus notices his last birth-day : — " This day I 
enter on my eighty-eighth year. For above eighty-six years, I 
found none of the infirmities of old age ; but last August I found 
almost a sudden change ; my strength probably will not return in 
this world ; but I feel no pain from head to foot, only, it seems 
nature is exhausted, and, humanly speaking, will sink more and 
more, till 

* The weary springs of life stand still at last.' '* 

His labours, however, suffered little interruption; he continued 
to preach as usual in different places in London and its vicinity, 
generally meeting the society afterwards in each place. His 
Journal closes on Sunday, 24th of October, 1790. But he pro- 
ceeded in his usual way till the stated time of his leaving London 
approached, when, with a view to his accustomed journey thi'ough 
Ireland or Scotland, he sent his chaise and horses before him to 
Bristol, and took places for himself and his friend in the Bath coach. 
But his " strength failed," and he was soon to " finish his course" 
nearer home. 

On Thursday, the 17th of February, 1791, Mr. Wesley preached 
at Lambeth ; but, on his return home, seemed much indisposed, 
and imagined he had taken cold. The following day he read and 
wrote as usual ; and in the evening preached at Chelsea, but not 
without difficulty, having a considerable degree of fever upon him. 
Saturday he still persevered in his usual employments, though, to 
those about him, his complaints seemed evidently increasing. He 
dined at Islington, after which he desired a friend to read to him 
from the fourth to the seventh chapter of Job, inclusive. On 
Sunday he rose early, according to custom, but quite unfit for the 
exercises of the day. He was obliged to lie down about seven 
o'clock in the morning, and slept several hours. In the course of 
the day two of his own discourses on our Lord's Sermon on the 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 243 



Mount were read to him ; and in the evening he came down to 
supper. Monday the 21st, he seemed m^ch better, and visited a 
friend at Twickenham. Tuesday he went on with his usual work, 
preached at the City Road, and seemed better than he had been 
for some days. Wednesday, he went to Leatherhead, where he 
delivered his last sermon, from Isa. Iv. 6, " Seek ye the Lord, 
while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near." 
Thursday, he paid a visit to Mr. Wolff's family at Balham, near 
Kennington Common, from whence he returned home on Friday 
the 25th, extremely ill. His friends were struck with the manner 
of his getting out of the carriage, and still more when he went up 
stairs and sat down in his chair. He sent every one out of the 
room, and desired not to be interrupted for half an hour. When 
that time had elapsed, some mulled wine was brought him, of 
which he drank a little. In a few minutes he threw it up and 
said, I must lie down." His friends were now alarmed, and Dr. 
Whitehead was immediately sent for. On entering the room, he 
said, in a cheerful voice, " Doctor, they are more frightened than 
hurt." Most of this day he lay in bed, had a quick pulse, with a 
considerable degree of fever and stupor. Saturday the 26th, he 
continued much in the same state, taking very little either of 
medicine or nourishment. On the Lord's day morning he seeme-d 
better, got up, and took a cup of tea. Sitting in his chair, he 
looked quite cheerful, and repeated these lines of his brother 
Charles: — -.jfi;; 

** Till glad I lay this body down, 
Thy servant, Lord, attend ; 
And O I my life of mercy crown 
With a triumphant end ! " 

Soon after, he said emphatically, " Our friend Lazarus sleepeth." 
Exerting himself to converse with some friends, he was soon 
fatigued and obliged to lie down. After lying some time quiet, he 
looked up and said, " Speak to me, I cannot speak." The persons 
present kneeled down to pray with him, and his hearty " Amen," 
showed he was perfectly sensible of what was said. Some time 



244 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

after he said, " There is no need of more ; when at Bristol my 
■words were, 

* I the chief of sinners am, 
But Jesus died for me.' " 

Monday, the 28th of February, his weakness increased. He 
slept most of the day, and spoke but little ; yet that little testified 
how much his whole heart was taken up in the care of the societies, 
the glory of God, and the interests of religion. On one occasion 
he said, in a low but distinct manner, " There is no way into the 
holiest but by the blood of Jesus." He asked what the words were 
from which he had preached a little before at Hampstead. Being 
told they were, " Brethren, ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, who, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became 
poor, that ye, through his poverty might be made rich," he re- 
plied, " That is the foundation, the only foundation, and there is 
no other." 

Tuesday morning, he sang two verses of a hymn, then lying still 
as if to recover sti'ength, he called for pen and ink ; but when it 
was brought he found himself unable to write. One present said, 
" Let me write for you, Sir ; tell me what you would say ?" He 
replied, " Nothing, but that God is with us." In the course of the 
forenoon, he said, " I will get up." While they were preparing his 
clothes, he broke out, in a manner which astonished all who were 
about him, in singing 

** I'll praise my Maker while I've breath, 
And when my voice is lost in death, 

Praise shall employ my nobler powers. 
My days of praise shall ne'er be past, 
While life, and breath, and being last, 
Or immortality endures." 

His attendants having got him into his chair, observed him 
change for death. He nevertheless lingered on the threshold, 
gradually sinking, till the morning of Wednesday, March the 2d, 
when, a few minutes before ten, while a number of his friends were 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 245 

kneeling around his bed, the taper of life expired in the most 
gentle manner. " He was in the eighty-eighth year of his age, 
and had been sixty-five years in the ministry. The records of his 
life are a lasting memorial of his uncommon zeal, and diligence, 
and usefulness in his Master's work, for more than half a century. 
His death was an admirable close of so laborious and useful a 
life." 

At the desire of many of his friends, his corpse was placed in 
the new chapel. City Road, and remained there the day before his 
interment. His face, during that time, had a peaceful smile upon 
it, and an expression that was admired by all who saw it. March 
the 9th was the day appointed for his interment. The arrange- 
ment first made was to have the corpse brought out from the 
adjoining house, in which Mr. Wesley died, and placed in a raised 
position before the pulpit during the funeral service. But the 
crowd, which came to see the body while it was exposed in the 
coflin, both in the private house and also in the chapel, was so 
great, that the friends of the deceased became apprehensive of a 
tumult, should they adopt the plan first proposed. They, there- 
fore, held a consultation, and came to the resolution, the evening 
before the funeral was to take place, to bury him between five and 
six in the morning. Though the time of notice to his friends was 
short, and the design itself was spoken of with great caution, yet 
the attendance was numerous even at that early hour. The Rev. 
Mr. Richardson, who now lies interred with him in the same vault, 
read the funeral service, in a manner which rendered it peculiarly 
affecting. When he came to that part of it, Forasmuch as it 
hath pleased Almighty God to take unto himself the soul of our 
dear brother" &c. he substituted, with the most tender emphasis, 
the epithet " father," instead of brother, which had so powerful an 
eflfect on the congregation, that, from silent tears they seemed 
universally to burst out into loud weeping. 

The funeral sermon was preached by Dr. Whitehead in the 
chapel at the hour appointed, to an astonishing number of people, 
among whom were many ministers of the Gospel, both of the estab- 
lishment and dissenters. 

This sermon was shortly afterwards published, and Mr. Adam 



246 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



Clarke, who was then stationed in Dublin, sent a copy of it to the 
learned Dr. Barnard, then bishop of Killaloe, accompanied by a 
letter from liimself, to which his lordship returned the following 
handsome reply. 

April, 27th, 1791. 

« Sir, 

" I received the favour of your letter and the excellent sermon 
that accompanied it, on the death of Mr. Wesley, w^hich I have 
perused with serious attention and uncommon satisfaction. It con- 
tains a true and not exaggerated encomium on that faithful and 
indefatigable servant of God who is now at rest from his labours, 
and (what is of more consequence to those who read it) an intelli- 
gible and judicious anoXoyla for the doctrine that he taught, which 
he has set forth in the clearest terms, and wdth a simplicity of style, 
even beyond that of Mr. Wesley himself; without the smallest 
tincture of (reprehensible) enthusiasm, erroneous judgment, or he- 
terodox opinion. He has plainly expounded the truth as it is in 
Jesus ; and I hope and believe that the dispersion of this little tract 
may do much good : as the sublimest truths of Christianity are 
there reduced ad captiim vulgi, and at the same time, proved to the 
learned to be none other than such as have been always held and 
professed in the Christian Church, from the time of the apostles till 
now, however individuals may have lost sight of them. 

" I am particularly obliged to you for communicating to me this 
little tract, and wish th;it I had the pleasure of knowing the author. 

" I return you my thanks for the personal respect you are so 
good as to express for me, and should be happy to deserve it. 

I am. Sir, 
Your very obedient, humble servant, 

Thomas, Killaloe." 

Although Mr. Wesley had furnished his friends with a specimen 
of the kind of inscription which he wished should be placed on his 
tomb-stone, as he said, to prevent vile panegyric" — they declined 
taking it as a model, under present circumstances. A long in- 
scription was placed upon his tomb ; and another afterwards on the 
marble tablet erected to his memory in the chapel. Of the latter^ 
the following is a copy : 



,247 



Sacred to the Memory 
Of the Rev. JOHN WESLEY, m.a. 
Sometime Fellow of Lincoln College j Oxford: 

A man in learning and sincere piety 
Scarcely inferior to any ; 
In zeal, ministerial labours, and extensive usefulness, 
Superior, perhaps, to all men 
Since the days of St. Paul. 

Regardless of fatigue, personal danger, and disgrace. 
He went out into the highways and hedges 
Calling sinners to repentance 
And publishing the gospel of peace. 

He was Founder of the Methodist Societies 
And the chief promoter and patron 
Of the plan of itinerant preaching. 
Which he extended throughout Great Britain and Ireland, 
The West Indies and America, 
With unexampled success. 

He was born the 17th of June, 1703 
And died the 2nd of March, 1791, 
In sure and certain hope of eternal life 
Through the Atonement and Mediation of a crucified Saviour. 

He was sixty-five years in the ministry 

And fifty-two an itinerant preacher. 
He lived to see in these Kingdoms only. 
About three hundred itinerant 
And one thousand local preachers. 
Raised up from the midst of his own people ; 
And eighty thousand persons in the Societies under his card. 

His name will be ever had in grateful remembrance 
By all who rejoice in the universal spread 
Of the Gospel of Christ. 
Soli Deo Gloria, 



248 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

It now only remains to present the reader with a brief description 
of Mr. Wesley's person, and some particulars of his character, or 
at least the more prominent features in it as sketched by his nu- 
merous biographers. 

The person of Mr. Wesley was remarkable. His stature was 
low : his habit of body, in every period of life, the reverse of cor- 
pulent, and expressive of strict temperance, and continual exercise. 
Notwithstanding his small size, his step was firm, and his appear- 
ance till within a few years of his death, vigorous and muscular. 
His face, for an old man, was one of the finest ever seen. In his 
countenance mildness and gravity were very pleasingly blended, and 
this in old age rendered it extremely venerable. A clear, smooth 
forehead, an aquiline nose, an eye the brightest and most piercing 
that can well be conceived, and a freshness of complexion scarcely 
ever to be found at his years, indicative also of the most perfect 
health, conspired to render him a venerable and interesting- figure. 
Few saw him without being struck with his appearance ; and many, 
V. lio had been greatly prejudiced against him, were known to change 
their opinion the moment they were introduced into his company. 
In his countenance and demea/iour, there was a cheerfulness mingled 
with gravity ; a sprightliness which was the natural result of an 
unusual flow of spirits, and yet was accompanied with ever mark 
of the most serene tranquillity. His aspect, particularly in profile, 
had a strong character of acutenesS and penetration. In dress he 
w^as a pattern of neatness and simplicity. A narrow plaited stock, 
a coat with a small upright collar, no buckles at his knees, no silk 
or velvet in any part of his apparel, and a head as white as snow, 
gave an idea of something primitive and apostolic, while an air of 
neatness and cleanliness was diffused over his whole person. 

The preceding sketch of his history will enable the reader to 
form a just estimate of his zeal and indefatigable industry in pro- 
secuting his ministerial labours. But it may be proper, in the 
conclusion of this narrative, that some features in his character 
should be more distinctly marked. In manners he was social, 
polite, and conversible, without any of the gloom and austerity 
that might have been expected. In the pulpit he was fluent, clear, 
and argumer tative ; often amusing; but never aiming at, or reach- 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A.S. 249 

ing, like Whitefield, the eloquence of passion. His style in writing 
was of a similar description, and he rarely appeared heated even in 
controversy. His^ great mental characteristics were energy and 
love of power, which he would never share with any one ; like 
many correspondent characters in the catholic world, who could 
not have effected what they lived to accomplish, on any other princi- 
ple. In a similar manner, he mixed up no small portion of human 
policy in his religious system. It may indeed be questioned if the 
annals of mankind can furnish a more accomplished ecclesiastical 
politician than John Wesley. In every part of the methodistic 
economy, things were so completely dovetailed, that judges upon 
the bench, when made acquainted wdth it, as they sometimes were, 
in consequence of litigations being submitted to their decision 
respecting the property in chapels, have been known to express 
their admiration of the profound wisdom and sagacity that were 
displayed in the arrangements and provisions made by the founder 
of methodism ! " As a preacher," says one of his biographers, 
" he had many qualifications in common with other eminent men, 
but some peculiar to himself. His attitude in the pulpit was 
graceful and easy; his action calm and natural, yet pleasing and 
expressive; his voice not loud, but manly and clear; his style, 
neat, simple, and perspicuous, and admirably adapted to the 
capacity of his hearers. His discourses, in point of composition, 
were extremely different on different occasions. When he gave 
himself sufficient time for stud}-, he succeeded ; but when he did 
not, lie frequently failed. It w^as indeed manifest to his friends for 
many years before he died, that his employments were too many, 
and he preached too often, to appear with the same advantage at 
all times in the pulpit. His sermons were always short ; he was 
seldom more than half an hour in delivering a discourse ; some- 
times not so long. His subjects were judiciously chosen ; instruc- 
tive and interesting to the audience, and well adapted to gain 
attention and warm the heart." 

As to his doctrinal syvStem, it was professedly of an Arminian 
complexion, though it is manifest from his jDublished woiks that it 
varied considerably at different periods of his life. The Rev. 
Melville Horne, in a little piece published by him while at Maccles- 

2 K 



250 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

field, tells us that on one occasion he mentioned to Mr. Wesley 
some objections which he had to the manner in which the Metho- 
dist preachers, and Dr. Coke in particular, were wont to state the 
doctrine of justification by faith, when Mr. Wesley thus addressed 
him : — " Why, Melville, when I look back to the rise of the 
Methodist connection, and think of the strange, incoherent, and 
unscriptural things we then uttered, I marvel that the good people 
did not stone us !" At one period of his life he was a violent 
impugner of the doctrine of Divine sovereignty, declaring that " he 
could sooner be a Turk or an infidel than he could believe the 
blessed God capable of giving grace (that is, showing mercy) to 
one and not to another." Yet Jehovah claims this adorable at- 
tribute as the brightest jewel in his crown, see Exod. xxxiii. 18, 19. 
When the writer of these remarks mentioned this matter to the 
late Dr. Hamilton, of the City Road, a local preacher in the Wes- 
leyan connection, about a dozen years ago, the Doctor made the 
following extraordinary reply : — " Sir, you must not take the 
character of Methodism in the present day from what it was thirty 
years ago — the Methodists of the present day are no more Arminians 
than they are Mahometans /" And, indeed, every intelligent person 
who attends to the current strain of preaching in their chapels, 
must be struck with its manifest approximation to that of moderate 
Calvinists — such as Watts, and Doddridge, and Fuller, and Hall, 
to say nothing of the old Puritans. It is much to the credit of the 
present race of Methodist preachers, that they refuse to be restricted 
to the reading of the writings of the Arminians, but can avail 
themselves of those of Dr. Owen, and Charnock, and Bates, and 
many others of the evangelical school. 

It is surely a matter of regret that, in collecting his converts 
into societies, Mr. Wesley was so little solicitous to organize those 
societies after the pattern which is laid down for Christians in all 
ages to copy after, in the New Testament. The primitive churches 
were set in order, with their bishops or elders, and deacons, under 
the direction of inspired apostles, and after a pattern shown them 
by Christ himself. Acts, i. 3. All their ordinances of public 
worship — their social practices — their laws and institutions were of 
Divine origin and appointment, and, consequently, best adapted to 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 251 

promote the glory of God, and the edification of the disciples in 
faith and holiness. But, rejecting these, Mr. Wesley's plans were 
all of his own devising — the result of which is that there is scarcely 
any affinity between Methodism and Scriptural Christianity ; and 
in proportion as the light increases and the attention of men is 
drawn to the latter, must the former retire. That cannot be the 
kingdom of Christ in which the whole economy is not under the 
regulation of his own laws — but nothing can be more demonstrable 
than that Methodism was subject to laws of Mr. Wesley's own 
framing. It was no unusual thing for some of his preachers to 
remonstrate against his stretch of arbitrary power and authority — 
and it is amusing to notice how he parried the thrust : — "When 
those persons who afterwards composed the society, first put them- 
selves under my care," said he, " the desire was on their part, not 
mine. My desire was to live and die in retirement; but I did not 
see that I could refuse them my help and be guiltless before God. 
And as it was merely in obedience to the providence of God, and 
for the good of the people, that I first accepted this power, which I 
never sought, nay, a hundred times laboured to throw off, so it is 
on the same considerations, not for profit, honour, or pleasure, that 
I use it at this day. But several gentlemen are still oflfended at it. 
My answer to them is this — I did not seek any part of this power, 
it came upon me unawares. But when it was come, not daring to 
bury that talent, I used it to the best of my judgment. Yet, I was 
never fond of it. I always did, and do now, bear it as my burden ; 
the burden which God lays upon me, and therefore I dare not as 
yet lay it down. But if you can tell me any one, or any five, to 
whom I may transfer this burden, who can and will do just what I 
do now, I will heartily thank both them and you." 

Mr. Wesley's temper was naturally warm and impetuous; but by 
religious principle and severe discipline, he brought it so much 
under control, as to maintain a remarkable sedateness and calm- 
ness, while in the discharge of his public duties. Persecution, 
opposition, and scorn, he could endure, not only without anger, but 
without the least apparent emotion ; but if ever, in later life, he 
was put oflfhis guard, it was when his preachers or people opposed 
or interfered with his regulations. This he cotild ill brook, and 



252 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

was sometimes betrayed by it into hasty expressions : but so great 
was his placabiUty, that nothing was easier than to appease his 
anger and regain his good will. 

Dr. Coppleston, the present Bishop of Landaff, has given an 
honourable testimony to Mr. Wesley's character and exertions; he 
describes him as " a man orthodox in his belief, simple and dis- 
interested in his own views, and adorned with the most amiable 
and distinguishing virtues of a true Christian. He found thou- 
sands of his countrymen, though nominally Christians, yet as 
ignorant of true Christianity as infidels and heathens ; and in too 
many instances (it is useless to conceal or disguise the fact) igno- 
rant, either through the inattention of the government, in not 
providing for increased numbers, or through the carelessness and 
neglect of those whom the national church had appointed to be 
their pastors." And then referring to what he deems Mr. Wesley's 
errors, he adds, " but over errors such as these let us cast a veil ; 
and rather rejoice in reflecting on the many whom he reclaimed 
from sin and wickedness, and taught to seek for salvation, through 
the merits of our Saviour. Of such a man we ought to speak, not 
only with tenderness, but with brotherly love and esteem." 

The following spirited character of Mr. Wesley, given by Mr. 
Nicholls, in the fifth volume of his Literary Anecdotes, must close 
this sketch of his character : — 

" Where much good is done, we should not mark every little 
excess. The great point in which Mr. Wesley's name and mission 
will be honoured is this — he directed his labours towards those 
who had no instructor ; to the highways and hedges ; to the miners 
in Cornwall, and to the colliers in Kingswood. These unhappy 
creatures married and buried among themselves, and often com- 
mitted murders with impunity, before the Methodists sprang up. 
By the humane and active endeavours of him and his brother 
Charles, a sense of decency, morals, and religion, was introduced 
into the lowest classes of mankind : the ignorant w^ere instructed, 
the wretched relieved, and the abandoned reclaimed. He met 
with great opposition from many of the clergy ; and unhandsome 
treatment from the magistrates, who frequently would refuse to 
check or punish a lawless mob, that often assembled to insult or 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



253 



nbuse him. He was, however, one of the few characters who out- 
live enmity and prejudice, and received in his later years every 
mark of respect from every denomination. His personal influence 
was greater, than, perhaps, that of any other private gentleman in 
any country. It was computed that, in 1791, there were, in the 
three kingdoms, 80,000 members of this society. He visited them 
alternately, travelling 8,000 miles every year, preached three or 
four times constantly in one day ; rose at four, and employed all 
his time in reading, writing, attending the sick, and arranging the 
various parts of this numerous body of people. Amongst his 
virtues, forgiveness to his enemies, and liberality to the poor, were 
most remarkable ; he has been known to receive, even into his con- 
fidence, those who had basely injured him ; they have not only 
subsisted again on his bounty, but shared in his affection. All 
the profit of his literary labours ; all that he received or could 
collect (and it amounted to an immense sum, for he was his own 
printer and bookseller) was devoted to charitable purposes. Yet, 
■with such opportunities of enriching himself, it was doubtful 
whether the sale of the books would pay all his debts. His travel- 
ling expenses were paid by the societies which he visited. 

" On a review of the character of this extraordinary man, it 
appears that, though he was endowed with eminent talents, he was 
more distinguished by their use, than even by their possession. 
Though his taste was classic, and his manners elegant, he sacri- 
ficed that society in which he was particularly calculated to shine ; 
gave up those preferments which his abilities must have obtained, 
and devoted a long life in practising and enforcing the plainest 
duties. Instead of being ' an ornament to literature/ he was a 
blessing to his fellow-creatures — instead of ' the genius of the age, 
he was ' the servant of God.' " 



254 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE. MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



SECTION X. 

Biography of Mr. Clarke resumed — his residence at Manchester, A. D 
lim—2.—and at Liverpool, 1793—4—5. 

We have seen, in the former part of the preceding section, that, 
during the time Mr. Clarke was stationed in Dubhn, his health was 
in a very declining state. When his year was expired, the annual 
Methodist Conference, the first after the death of Mr. Wesley, was 
held in Manchester ; and the preachers assembled on that occasion, 
taking into consideration his bad health, appointed him to the Man- 
chester Circuit, principally with a view to his using the Buxton 
waters, as the likeliest means of his recovery. The remedy was 
tried, and happily with success ; he not only had recourse to the 
baths, but also drank the waters, and found great benefit from them. 
This induced the Conference to continue him upon the same circuit 
a second year, when he again visited Buxton, and had his health 
completely restored. We cannot, therefore, wonder that one who 
had received such an experimental proof of the utility of these 
waters in mitigating rheumatic complaints, should be a strenuous 
advocate for them through life, as he certainly was, speaking 0/ 
them in the highest terms, and insisting that their efficacy, in com- 
plaints of that kind, could not be overrated. 

It is almost impossible to do justice to the biography of any public 
man, during this period of Dr. Clarke's life, whether he be layman 
or clergyman, without glancing at the political state of the country, 
from the year 1789 to the end of the century — so very unlike was 
it to the ordinary routine of things. In the year just mentioned, 
the French Revolution burst out like a volcano, spreading an- 
archy and confusion through all the states of Europe: and though 
we were happily separated, by our insular situation, from its imme- 
diate contact, yet we felt enough of it to " fright the isle from its 
propriety." The appalling scenes through which we passed are suf- 
ficiently fresh in our recollection, to chill us with horror, and to exto/t 
the fervent wish that they may never be permitted by a gracious 
Prcvidence to return upon us. Tc furnish even a sketch of the 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. SfS 

lubject, or present the reader who has since entered the workl with 
in outline of the picture, demands no ordinary pencil. 

" If you had wished to figure to yourselves," says the eloquent 
Hall, when glancing back upon it, " a counti-y which had reached 
the utmost pinnacle of prosperity, you would undoubtedly have 
turned your eyes to France, as she appeared a few years before the 
Revolution : illustrious in learning and genius ; the favourite abode 
of the arts, and the mirror of fashion, whither the flower of the no- 
bility from all countries resorted, to acquire the last polish of which 
the human character is susceptible. Lulled in voluptuous repose, 
and dreaming of a philosophical millenium, without dependance 
upon God, like the generation before the flood, ' they ate, they 
drank, they married, they were given in marriage.' In that exube- 
rant soil every thing seemed to flourish but religion and virtue. 
The season, however, was at length arrived, when God was resolved 
'to punish their impiety, as well as to avenge the blood of his ser- 
vants, whose souls had for a century been incessantly crying to him 
from under the altar. And what method did he employ for this 
purpose ? When he to whom vengeance belongs — when he whose 
ways are unsearchable, and whose wisdom is inexhaustible, pro- 
ceeded to the execution of this strange work, he drew from his 
treasures a weapon he had never before employed. Resolving to 
make their punishment as signal as their crimes, he neither let loose 
an inundation of barbarous nations, nor the desolating powers of 
the universe ; he neither overwhelmed them with earthquakes, nor 
visited them with pestilence. He summoned from among them- 
selves a ferocity more terrible than either ; a ferocity which min- 
gling in the struggle for liberty, and borrowing aid from that very 
refinement to which it seemed to be opposed, turned every man's 
hand against his neighbour, and sparing no age, nor sex, nor rank, 
till satiated with the ruin of greatness, the distresses of innocence, 
and the tears of beauty, it terminated its career in the most unrelent- 
ing despotism. ' Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and 
which was, and which shall be, because thou has judged thus : for 
they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given 
them blood to drink for they arc worthy.' " 

Adverting to the same portentous crisis, the following paragraphs* 



•^'^'^ MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, AIIMSTIiV, AND WRIJiNGS, 

from the same able writer, deserve insertion. " The contest in 
which we have been lately engaged, is distinguished from all others 
in modern times, by the number of nations it embraced, and the 
animosity with which it was conducted. Making its first appear- 
ance in the centre, of the civilized world, like a fire enkindled in the 
thickest part of a forest, it spread during ten years on every side ; 
it burnt in all directions, gathering fi-esh fury in its progress, till it 
enwrapped the whole of Europe in its flames : an awful spectacle, 
not only to the inhabitants of the earth, but in the eyes of superioj 
beings. What place can we point out to which its eflfects have not 
extended ? Where is the nation, the family, the individual I might 
almost say, who has not felt its influence ? It is not the termination 
of an ordinary contest which we are assembled this day to com- 
memorate ; it is an event which includes for the present (may it 
long perpetuate) the tranquillity of Europe, and the pacification of 
the world ! we are met to express our devout gratitude to God for 
putting a period to a war, the most eventful perhaps that has been 
witnessed for a thousand years, a war which has transformed the face oi 
Europe, removed the land-marks of nations, and limits of empires.* 

" The spirit of animosity with which it has been conducted is an- 
other circumstance which has eminently distinguished the recent 
contest. What principally contributed to make the contest so pecu- 
liarly violent, was a discordancy betwixt the opinions and the 
institutions of society. A daring spirit of speculation, untcm- 
pered alas by humility and devotion, has been the distinguish- 
ing feature of the present times. While it confined itself to the 
exposure of the corruptions of religion, and the abuses of power, 
it met with some degree of countenance from the wise and good in 
all countries, who were ready to hope it was the instrument destined 
by Providence to ameliorate the condition of mankind. How great 
was their disappointment, when they perceived that, pretensions to 
philanthropy were, with many, only a mask assumed for the more 
successful propagation of impiety and anarchy !"f 

At the time Mr. Adam Clarke was stationed on the Manchester 
Circuit, A. D. 1791-2, the sentiments of the people of England 



* Reflections on War, p. 27. 



t Ibid, p. 18, 19. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 2^7 

g:€nerally, were much divided, respecting the merits or demerits of 
what had taken place, and was then going on i^ France. The Tory 
party including placemen and pensioners, regarded it in the light 
of a horrible rebellion, and trembled lest the contagion should 
spread and affect our happy country : while the friends of civil and 
religious liberty hailed it as the dawn of an auspicious era to the 
nations of Europe. On the part of the Tories, the celebrated Ed- 
mund Burke sounded the tocsin of alarm, in his w^ell known book, 
entitled, " Reflections on the French Revolution," a publication of 
so singular a cast, that, in the language of Sir James Mackintosh, 

we scarcely could praise it or blame it too much." Mr. Burke had 
answers without end; but the most popular was that of the noted 
Thomas Paine, entitled " The Rights of Man," in which the mo- 
narchical kind of government was treated with great contempt, and 
the glories of a republic, such as he had lately been instrumental in 
establishing for the United States beyond the Atlantic, was held up 
to the admiration of our countrymen ! 

Paine, who was the Cobbett of that day, became the idol of the 
great class of operatives thoughout the manufacturing districts in 
the midland counties, particularly Lancashire, York, and Notting- 
ham. And even great numbers of religious people caught the mania, 
and were carried away with the torrent of democracy. The pul- 
pits of all parties resounded with the pro and con politics of the day 
— often to the shameful neglect of " the things which pertain to 
the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ." 

It fell to the lot of Mr. Clarke to be associated, while on the 
Manchester district, with two eminent men, who unfortunately 
took opposite sides of this great political question — and it placed 
him between two fires. His own politics were of the liberal cast — - 
he being what is termed a Whig ; and from those principles he 
never swerved ; but he had sufficient prudence to abstain from 
introducing them at any time into the pulpit; confining his preach- 
ing to the doctrine of Christ crucified, and salvation through his 
blood. On the contrary his colleagues (one of whom if we mistake 
not ^as Mr. Samuel Bradbury, a thorough democrat) was con- 
tinually pleading the cause of republicanism, while the other ex- 
hausted himself in maintaining the divine right of kings and regular 

2 L 



258 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFR, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

governments to do whatever might seem right in their own eyes, 
the people at large, according to the phrase of Mr. Wyndham, in 
the House of Commons, *' having nothing to do with the laws but 
to obey them." Mr. Clarke was sorely grieved with this state of 
things ; but remonstrance was unavailing, and he determined to steer 
a middle course, confining his ministrations to subjects strictly 
theological ; and though, as he modestly expresses it, " his abilities 
were greatly inferior to those of his colleagues, his congregations 
were as large as theirs, and his teaching more abundantly useful." 
He justly adds, that " political preachers neither convert souls, nor 
build up believers in their most holy faith : one may pique himself 
on his loyalty, the other on his liberality and popular notions of 
government ; but in the sight of the great head of the church, the 
first is a sounding brass, the other a tinkling cymbal. — 

Arcades amho 

Et cantare pares et respondere paraii. 

Both stubborn statesmen, both with skill inspired. 
To scold or bluster as their cause required. 

When professed preachers of the gospel become parties in party 
politics, religion mourns, ' the hungry sheep look up and are not 
fed,' and political disputes agitate even the faithful of the land. 
Such preachers, no matter which side they take, are no longer the 
messengers of glad tidings, but the seedsmen of confusion, and 
wasters of the heritage of Christ." 

The present generation can have but a very faint idea of the in- 
flamed state of the public mind in all large towns and popular 
places at the period now referred to. A spirit of rancour and 
bitterness, arising from party politics, diflfused its baneful influence 
through all ranks and classes of the community — from the merchant 
upon 'Change to the peasant's hut; two acquaintances could 
scarcely meet in the street, but their hands were ready to be lifted 
against each other on the politics of the day, and the peace of the 
domestic circle was too often disturbed by the same fruitless topic. 
Even the pulpit became desecrated into an instrument of rancorous 
hostility ; and as those of the establishment were mostly enlisted 
'n the service of the Tories, to plead the cause of " a just and 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLAliKE, LL.l)., F.A.S. -59 

necessary war," those of the dissenters caught the baneful infection, 
and in general took the opposite side of the question. The conduct 
of the latter was very galling to the government of the day, and in 
some instances their agents did not hesitate to make terrible ex- 
amples in order to deter others from pursuing that line of conduct. 
I shall adduce two instances of this, in proof of what Mr. Clarke Ims 
told us of his situation in Manchester, and also in illustration of 
his own prudence in avoiding the introduction of political topics 
into, the pulpit. 

The first is the case of Dr. Priestley, then of Birmingham. The 
friends of freedom in that town, had determined, in the year 1791, 
to celebrate the anniversary of the destruction of the Bastille, the 
King's Stat^) Prison in the vicinity of Paris, which had taken place 
on the 14th July, 1789. The populace of that town collected in a 
great mob, and, uncontrolled by the magistrates, burned to the ground 
some places of worship belonging to the Socinian class of dissenters, 
and the dwelling houses also of several of them. They then pro- 
ceeded to the residence of Dr. Priestley, where they destroyed his 
house, his valuable library, all his papers and philosophical appa- 
ratus, and would in all probability have added himself to the general 
conflagration, had he not fortunately escaped their fury, and become 
a fugitive in order to preserve his life. This tumult, after raging 
four days, and extending its direful effects over the adjacent popu- 
lous districts was quelled by military force. Many of the rioters 
were apprehended and brought to trial, but three only were capitally 
punished. 

The other instance referred to is that of the late Mr. William 
Winterbotham, many years a Baptist minister at Shortwood, near 
Stroud in Gloucestershire, a man of more than ordinary talents. 
In the year 1792, this gentleman resided at Plymouth, and was an 
assistant preacher to Mr. Philip Gibbs of that town, pastor of the 
Baptist church in How's lane. It had long been the custom of 
the dissenters of Plymouth to hold an Anniversary Service on the 
return of the 5th of November, in commemoration of the nation's 
happy deliverance from ?i popish plot. Mr. Gibbs himself being at 
an advanced stage of life, and in a declining state of health, it fell 
to the lot of his assistant to deliver the Anniversary sermon, which 



S60 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

was preached in that evening of the clay. After speaking of British 
deliverances, and offering various observations on what might be 
called peculiarly Biitish topics, he adverted to the revolution which 
had lately taken place in France The sermon, however, contained 
nothing of a seditious cast, but on the contrary inculcated every 
thing that was loyal and peaceable in spirit and conduct ; and in 
the boldest of its sentiments and principles there was no more than 
had been maintained by Locke and Blackstoue and others, who 
were generally considered as the ablest of our political writers and 
the soundest advocates of the British constitution. But this was 
found a favourable opportunity for ignorance, prejudice, and male- 
volence to operate. Two or three persons of weak understandings, 
and strong prejudices, without education or respectability, who 
attended to hear the sermon, soon began to spread false reports, or 
at least very exaggerated ones, of what had been said. The magis- 
trates gladly availed themselves of these to turn them to their own 
account. Informations against Mr. Winterbotham were immedia- 
tely sent to the higher authorities— solicitors were engaged — and 
every method that party spirit and personal hostility could devise, 
was diligently employed to procure materials which legal ingenuity 
might work up into a formidable indictment. Wi^ the laudable 
desire of publicly contradicting the falsehoods circulated by some 
and correcting the misapprehensions entertained by others, Mr. 
Winterbotham availed himself of an opportunity, about a fortnight 
afterwards of delivering a discourse from Rom. xiii. 12. " The 
night is far spent, the day is at hand &c.," in which he most clearly 
and distinctly stated the duty of Christians to submit to the ordi- 
nance of civil government under every variety of constitution and 
every form of administration, in a manner that seemed likely to 
preclude all possibility of misunderstanding or affording any pretext 
for misrepresentation. But instead of conciliating, this sermon was 
perversely charged as an aggravation of guilt, and made the sub- 
ject of a second indictment : and upon these two indictments, Mr. 
Winterbotham was arraigned as a culprit, and tried at Exeter 
before Baron Perryn and a special jury — and in defiance of all 
law and evidence, found guilty of preaching seditious sermons, and 
f«ntenced to four years imprisonment, and paym/»nt of a fine of 



OF THE REV. ADAIW JLARKE^ LL. D., F. A. S. 26l 

two hundred pounds! and withal, security for five years' good 
behaviour. The expenses incurred by Mr. Winterbothain in his 
defence amounted to an additional sum of £337. 

This was a salutary lesson to the dissenting ministers of that 
day, how they meddled with politics in the pulpit — nor can it be 
doubted that it tended greatly to check the evil : but that poor 
Winterbotham was made the scape goat," on this occasion, and 
that his severe punishment was planned and designed by the ruling 
powers to operate in this direction, may not unreasonably be infer- 
red from the following curious fact, which I am not at present 
aware has hitherto got into print — the truth of it however may be 
relied upon. 

When Mr. Winterbotham's term of imprisonment had expired, 
he produced his sureties for his good behaviour, regained his 
liberty, and returned to Plymouth where he resumed his minis- 
terial functions. In process of time he received a call from the 
Baptist church at Shortwood to succeed Benjamin Francis in the 
pastoral office of that church, with which he complied, and in 1804 
removed to Gloucestershire. Here he continued his pastoral 
labours, till the fall of Napoleon put an end to the long and pro- 
tracted war. Pitt and most of his colleagues were removed from 
the scene of action — and the office of Chancellor of the exchequer 
was filled by Mr. Vansittart, now Lord Bexley ; and it was during 
his administration that what I am going to relate took place. 

During the term of Mr Winterbotham's confinement in Newgate, 
he was visited by many of the leading democratical politicians of 
the day, among whom was Robert Southey, the present Poet 
Laureate, then, in politics, a complete radical ! He pitied his ill- 
fated brother, commiserated his unhappy lot, and did his utmost to 
cheer him under his sufferings. By the period that the war was 
closed, Southey had, in politics, got round to the other point of the 
compass, and become a state contributor to the Quarterly Review, 
the grand organ of the Tories ! In an article which appeared in 
that Journal, a few years after the termination of the war, a re- 
trospective glance was taken of some prominent features in the 
state of the country during the fearful contest, and among other 
things, Winterbotham's cruel and unjust sentence was adverted to 



262 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



in somewhat feeling strains. It was spoken of as a hard case — 
beih^ a violation of all the principles of justice and equity^ — a ver- 
dict in opposition to the direction of the learned judge &c. &c. 
A few weeks after the publication of this article in the Quarterly, 
Mr. Winterbothain was surprised by the receipt of an anonymous 
letter, through the medium of the Post Office, the purport of which 
was to apprize him, that if he would ride over to a neighbouring 
town — call at a certain bank in that town — give in his name — but 
ask no questions, he would be presented with something worth his 
attention. Mr. Winterbotham did so, and on calling as directed, 
was presented with a bank of England note, value one thousand 
POUNDS ! The reader must be left to indulge his own reflections 
on this singular occurrence — and should he resolve the whole mys- 
tery into some compunctious visitings of conscience in a certain 
quarter, he perhaps may not be very wide of the mark. Bank 
notes of a thousand pounds value do not drop from the clouds ! 
We now return to Mr. Clarke. 

In the course of the year 1792, Mr. Clarke was bereaved of a 
fine healthy boy, nearly two years old, who was called after his 
own name, and he felt the stroke severely. The child had been 
seized with the croup ; and though medical aid was promptly 
called in, it was found totally unavailable; it died in its father's 
arms a few hours after it was seized, and the shock came upon 
the parents so instantaneously that it was some time before they 
could realize the appalling fact. The father continued through 
life to retain the liveliest impressions of the afflictive occurrence, 
and when any incident brought it into notice his eyes were instantly 
suffused with tears, nor would he ever permit another of his children 
to be called after his own name. 

Mr. Clarke removed from Manchester to Liverpool, in the sum- 
mer of 1793, in accordance with the appointment of Conference, 
and here he continued for two years, viz. from Midsummer 1793 to 
Midsummer 1795. It was during this interval that he was very 
near losiug his life by assassination ; the circumstances attending 
which are thus related. 

He had been preaching one evening at the Village of Aintree, 
aear West Derby, about six miles from Liverpool, and was leturu- 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S 



263 



kUg home accompanied by two friends, one of whom was his brother, 
Tracy Clarke, who, as formerly mentioned, took up his residence 
at Maghull, where he practised as a surgeon and apothecary. A 
stone from an invisible hand struck him on the head, cut through 
his hat, and inflicted a deep incision. Mr. Clarke fell to the ground 
with the violence of the blow, which is no way wonderful, for the 
stone was afterwards picked up and proved to be upwards of a 
pound weight ! This horrid deed was proved to be the act of one of 
two men who had been to hear him preach, and way-laid him on 
his way homewards, and had he been alone would in all probability 
have murdered him. His friends carried him into a cottage at no 
great distance, when his brother examined the wound and found, 
that though not necessarily mortal, it was of such a kind as to 
render perfect quiet and tranquillity indispensable to a recovery^ 
and therefore, after washing and dressing it, for the bleeding had 
been copious, they determined to let him remain at the cottage till 
the following day. 

Leaving the friend with his wounded companion, Mr. Tracy 
Clarke set off in pursuit of the miscreants who had perpetrated this 
outrage, and found them at a public house not far off. On his 
charging them with the fact, each one began to accuse the other 
with having done it, on which Mr. Clarke had them taken into 
custody. The neighbourhood of Aintree, like many other parts of 
Lancashire, is full of Roman Catholics ; and it occurred to him to 
question the men as to their creed, when they frankly acknowledged 
that they were Catholics — that they had casually entered the house 
during the preaching, and placing; themselves near the door, as 
soon as the service was over they followed Mr. Clarke, concerted 
their plan and executed it in the manner now mentioned. While 
explaining the circumstances of the case to the people of the house 
where Mr. Adam Clarke lay, it turned out that they also were 
Catholics, and when they were informed that the offenders were 
Papists, and the object of their cruelty a Methodist preacher, they 
said, " you have been rightly served ; what business had you to 
come and preach here ? it is a pity they had not killed you ! " 

Shocked at hearing such a declaration as this, the two friends 
instantly perceived that this was no fit place to leave Mr. Clarke. 



MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MIMSTRV, AND WRITINGS, 



iD for the night, and therefore resolved on taking him to his bro- 
ther's house at Maghull, which \rith much difficulty and risk they 
succeeded in doing ; and on the follovnng day he insisted on being 
taken to his own house in Liverpool, where he was presented to 
his family, the picture of deaths his hair and clothes covered with 
blood. Her-e. he was laid up for more than a mouth, a considerable 
part of which time his life hung in doubt. The men were brought 
up before a magistrate for this honible outrage, but Mr. Clarke 
apprehending that it might affect their lives, declined to prosecute ; 
and on their confessing their fault, and binding themselves never 
more to offend, they were discharged. It is manifest that the men 
had not been instigated to this atrocious deed by any thing the 
preacher had said in his sermon, for he had made not the slightest 
allusion to any article of the Romish faith, nor had he given them 
the slightest offence in any way ; their malice towards him arose 
fi ora their bigotrj^ and bad passions ; and in a few years they both 
came to a tragical end, 

Mr, Clarke's conduct while residing in Liverpool contributed 
much to his popularity and to making him friends. He laboured 
assiduously in the duties of his calling, preaching almost daily, and 
visiting his congregation from house to house, more esp>ecially the 
sick and afflicted ; and he prosecuted his studies too with unwearied 
application. It was at this juncture, 1795, that the writer of this 
Memoir first became acquainted with him, and heard him preach — 
dined with him — and spent a whole afternoon with him, examining 
his library in which were many scarce and valuable books which 
he had not previously seen — black-letter bibles — ancient manu- 
script versions of the New Testament — illuminated 3Iissals — and 
curious Oriental tracts on vellum. At that time 3Ir, Clarke resided 
in Leeds street, near the canal, on the north of the town, and quite 
in its subui'bs. His colleague was Mr. John Pawson, a veteran in 
the service of Methodism, a man of great gravity and established 
reputation, but not at all partaking of Mr. Clarke's literary habits. 
They acted, however, in perfect unison and harmony in their one 
grand object, and saw the success of their joiut labours, in the 
rapid increase of the societies. 

Although the following anecdote has not found its way mio the 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



263 



Life of Dr. Adam Clarke as published by the family, it possesses 
sufficient interest to entitle it to be placed upon record, as serving 
to illustrate the character and labours of Mr. Clarke during the 
time he resided in Liverpool. The wi'iter of these lines had it at 
the time from undoubted authority, that of a brother-in-law who 
was intimately acquainted with all the parties. 

There is at Knowsley, a few miles from Liverpool, adjoining the 
park of the Earl of Derby, a chapel, of orthodox origin, as the 
trust-deed states, but which, like many other endowed places of 
worship in Lancashire, had fallen, in process of time, into the hands 
of the Socinians. The latter, nothing behind their contemporaries 
in what relates to the loaves and fishes, retained possession, and 
kept open the doors on the Lord's day as long as any persons could 
be induced to attend the preaching of these " Rational Christians." 

In the year 1795, however, not an individual could be found to 
*nter the place except those who were paid for so doing, and the 
doors were closed in despair. The Rev. John Yates, minister of 
die Unitarian chapel in Paradise Street, Liverpool, had the 
management of the place, and not knowing what to do with it, at 
last called upon Mr. Clarke, and thus addressed him ; " There is," 
said Mr. Yates, " a place of worship at Knowsley, which has been, 
during several generations, in the possession of our denomination, 
endowed with an estate in Cheshire, and we have done all we 
could to keep it open by sending preachers statedly there ; but^ 
whatever be the cause, they have preached the people all away ; 
for not an individual now attends. I wish, therefore, Mr. Clarke, 
that you would take it into your hands, and let your preachers try 
what they can do with it — perhaps the people in the neighbour- 
hood may hear them, though they decline any longer to hear us." 
Mr. Clarke courteously replied, " Why, sir, that is no very uncom- 
mon case — it is not at all improbable, that the strain of preaching 
pursued by your ministers is of too refined a cast for the inhabi- 
tants of a country village — the poor people may not be able to 
understand them. We will, if you please, make an experiment, 
and you shall know how far we succeed in the matter." Arrange- 
ments were made accordingly — the Methodists re-opened the 
place, and the people flocked to hear them. This is nearly forty 

2 M 



266 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

years ago, but how matters have progressed since that time, 1 am 
not able to say. From a paragraph in the " Manchester Socinian 
Controversy," p. 141, it would seem that the place has lapsed into 
the hands of the clergy of the Church of England, who, too la?y 
themselves, send two laymen from Liverpool every Lord's day, one 
to read prayers, and the other to read a sermon, perhaps through 
the influence of the Knowsley family, who may not relish the 
bustle of Methodism. 

In the summer of the year 1794, the parents of Mr. Adam 
Clarke, accompanied by the younger branches of their family, 
removed from Ireland, which was then become a scene of political 
contention and strife, not to say of disloyalty and rebellion, such 
as must have rendered it far from enviable, as a place of residence, 
to families that coveted peace and tranquillity. After a time they 
took up their residence in Manchester, where the senior Mr. Clarke 
succeeded in establishing a classical school, which he kept up to 
the time of his death, which took place in the year 1798, in the 
sixty-second year of his age. 



SECTION XI. 

3Ir. Clarke s removal to the London Circuit, where he continues for 
three years, A.D.I 795—1 798. 

We now approach that period in the life of Mr. Adam Clarke 
when he began to take his stand among the authors of the age, and 
to give to the world, through the medium of the press, the fruits of 
his studies and learning. 

In the year 1795, the Annual Conference was held in Manches- 
ter, in the month of July, at which he received his appointment to 
the Metropolitan Circuit, and at the conclusion of its sittings^, he 
returned to Liverpool, in order to remove his family to London. 
Here he took up his residence in John Street, Spitalfields, in the 
house adjoining the chapel which had been originally built for the 
French-Protestant-Refugees, but then recently purchased by the 
Wesleyan Methodists. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



267 



This appointment placed him in a post of eminence, more con- 
spicuous than any which he had hitherto filled; the Circuit in 
which he was to labour, as a preacher, was widely extended — stretch- 
ing east and west from Woolwich to Twickenham, and north and 
south from Tottenham to Dorking. His walks were consequently 
long, and his preaching, as well as other religious exercises, numer- 
ous and frequent throughout the week. It was his constant prac- 
tice to register all the texts he preached from, and all the places he 
preached at, in regular chronological order ; and on examining this 
journal it has been found, that during the three years he continued 
on the London Circuit, he walked upwards of seven thousand miles, 
in the mere duty of preaching, or forty miles a week, and six miles 
a day, dies de diem, without intermission — these journeys being in- 
variably performed on foot, that to Dorking excepted, which, lying 
at a distance of twenty-three miles from headquarters, was scarcely 
accessible to a pedestrian every week, especially one who had other 
stations to visit on the morrow. 

But Mr. Clarke's residence in London was a most important cir- 
tumstance to him in various other respects than considered merely 
in reference to his labours as a preacher. He was now placed at 
the mai't of literature — the fountain head of intelligence and infor- 
mation — the centre around which all the arts and sciences and 
learning of the age maybe said to move, and from which the march 
of intellect emanates. Here the best public libraries were accessible 
to him — the catalogues of books issuing every month from the shop 
of one or other of the trade, gave him an opportunity of knowing 
what books were on sale, in all languages and every department of 
literature, and also of adding to his own library such as he desired 
to possess and his finances would enable him to purchase. Nor 
was this all — it cannot be denied that there is in London a much 
greater concentration of literai-y men than is to be found in any 
other part of the kingdom — a much greater exchange of minds, in 
various modes, and quicker succession than is to be found elsewhere 
If information be wanted on any point, it may, in London, be had 
almost instanter, without waiting for the end of the month when the 
periodicals are issued, or the booksellers' parcels arrive. A note of 
mquiry transmitted to the Timesj HerakL or Chronicle is responded 



268 MEMOIRS OF THE LlPJi, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

to the next day, and your doubts are solved, or the desired infor- 
mation obtained. Of all these advantages, almost peculiar to the 
Metropolis, and of incalculable importance to a literary man, Mr. 
Clarke was fully aware, and he turned the whole to good purpose. 
He seems now for the first time to have adopted the idea of giving 
to the public a Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, and with tliat 
view employed himself in writing notes, and making Memoranda, 
To enable him to do so with greater ability, correctness, and satis- 
faction to himself, he began the critical reading of the Original 
Texts. He made a literal ti'anslation of every verse of the Old 
and New Testaments from their Originals, marking all tlie Various 
Readings and comparing them with our present Authorized V'^ersion. 
But, indeed, his own account of the preparations which he about 
this time made for the undertaking of a work of such magnitude, 
and the obstacles he surmounted in prosecuting it, are best learnt 
from his own record. 

" At an early age I took for my motto. Proverbs xviii. 1. 
' Through desire, a man, having separated himself, seeketh and inter- 
meddleth with all wisdom.' Being convinced that the Bible was 
the source whence all the principles of true wisdom, wherever found 
in the world, had been derived, my desire to comprehend ade- 
quately its great design, and to penetrate the meaning of all its 
parts, led me to separate myself from every pursuit that did not lead, 
at least indirectly, to the accomplishment of this end ; and while 
seeking and intermeddling with different branches of human know- 
ledge, I put each study under contribution to the object of my pur- 
suit; endeavouring to make every thing subservient to the infor- 
mation of my own mind, that, as far as Divine Providence might 
think proper to employ me, 1 might be the better qualified to in- 
struct others. At first, I read and studied, scarcely committing any 
thing to paper, having my own edification alone in view, as I could 
not then hope that any thing I wrote could be of sufficient import- 
ance to engage the attention or promote the welfare of the public. 
But, as I proceeded, I thought it best to note down the result of my 
studies, especially as far as they related to the Septuagint, which, 
about the year 1785, I began to read regularly, in order to acquaint 
myself more fully with the phraseology of the New Testament j as 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 269 

I found that this truly venerable Version was that to which our 
blessed Lord and his Apostles had constant recourse, and from 
which they made all their quotations. The study of this Version 
served more to illuminate and expand my mind, than all the theo- 
logical works I had ever consulted. I had proceeded but a short 
way in it, before I was convinced that the prejudices against it were 
utterly unfounded, and that it was of incalculable advantage to- 
ward a proper understanding of the literal sense of Scripture. About 
nine years after this, my health having been greatly impaired by 
the severity of my labours, and fearing that I should soon be ob- 
liged to relinquish my public employment, I formed the purpose of 
writing short Notes on the New Testament, collating the common 
printed text with all the MSS. and collections from MSS. to which 1 
could have access. Scarcely had I projected this work, when I was 
convinced that another was jormowsZy necessary, viz. a careful peru- 
sal of the original Text. I began this ; and soon found that it was 
perfectly possible to read, and not to understand, tinder this con- 
viction, I sat down, determining to translate the whole, before I at- 
tempted any comment, that I might have the Sacred Text the more 
ieeply impressed on my memory. 

" 1 accordingly began my translation in June, 1794, and finished 
it in May, 1795; collating the original Text with all the ancient 
and with several of the modem Versions ; carefully weighing the 
value of the most important various readings found in those, and in 
the most authentic copies of the Greek Text. A worse state of 
health ensuing, I was obliged to remit almost all application to 
study, and the work was thrown aside for nearly two years : having 
returned to it, when a state of comparative convalescence took 
place — I found I had not gone through the whole of my preliminary 
work. The New Testament, I plainly saw, was a comment on the 
Old ; and to understand such a comment, I knew it was absolutely 
necessary to be well acquainted with the Text. I then formed the 
plan of reading, consecutively, a portion of the Hebrew Bible daily. 
Accordingly, in January 1797, I began to read the original Text of 
the Old Testament, noting down on the different books, chapters, 
and veises, such things as appeared to me of most importance ; in- 
tending the work as an outline for one on a more extensive scale. 



270 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

should it please God to spare my life, and give me health and leisure 
to complete it. This preliminary work I finished in March 1798, 
having spent in it a little more than one year and two months ; in 
which time I translated every sentence, Hebrew and Chaldee, in 
the Old Testament. In such a work, it would be absurd to pretend 
that I had not met with difficulties. I was attempting to illustrate 
the most ancient and most learned Book in the universe, replete 
with allusions to arts that are lost, — to nations that are extinct, — 
to customs that are no longer observed, — and abounding in modes 
of speech and turns of phraseology, which can only be traced out 
through the medium of the cognate Asiatic languages. On these 
accounts I was often much perplexed, but I could not proceed till I 
had done the utmost in my power to make every thing plain. The 
frequent occurrence of such difficulties, led me closely to examine 
and compare all the original Texts and Versions ; and from these, 
especially the Samaritan, Chaldee Targums, Septuagint, and Vul- 
gate, I derived the most assistance ; though all the rest contributed 
their quota in cases of difficulty. 

" On May I, 1798, almost as soon as this work was finished, I 
began my comment on the four Gospels ; and notwithstanding the 
preparations already made, and my indefatigable application, earl^j 
and late, to the work, I did not reach the end of the fourth Evange- 
list, till November in the following year." 

- ^ ;.; 

Such is Dr. Clarke's own account of his pursuits at this particu- 
lar juncture: and it furnishes us with a,n interesting detail of literary 
labours, during the years 1795, 6, 7, and 8. The translation of the 
Holy Scriptures which he then made, and which was illustrated 
with Critical Notes, explanatory of the reasons why he deviated 
from the received Original Text, or varied from the authorized ver- 
sion, was afterwards thrown aside by him, and destroyed by the 
family at his often repeated request, as he considered it not suffi- 
ciently correct to meet the eye of criticism. 

The Wesley an Conference of 1796, was held in London ; and it 
was one of peculiar interest to the body of Methodists, for this, 
among other reasons, that it gave occasion to a schism in the body — 
the first after the demise of its founder. Of this schism, which 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LI . D., F. A.S. 



271 



divided the Wesleyan Methodists into two connections, viz. : llio. 
Old and the New, or the Wesleyans and the Kilhamites, a concise 
account cannot be considered much out of place, in a life of Dr. 
Clarke. It originated with a Mr. Alexander Kilham, a Methodist 
preacher, and one of the members of Conference. He had published 
a pamphlet entitled " The Progress of Liberty," in which opinions 
and speculations were advanced that were far from meeting the con- 
currence of his brethren. These topics became the matter of dis- 
cussion during the sittings of Conference in 1796, and eventually 
led to the author's expulsion from the body. Being a person of 
some talents and influence, Kilham drew away much people after 
him, and succeeded in establishing himself as the head of a new 
sect — a sect which for several years could boast of numbering among 
its preachers, the late eloquent and talented Richard Watson, a man, 
of whom any denomination might well be proud. 

Should we ask the leaders of this New Connection the grounds 
of their separation, they assure us that their objections lie against 
jhe church government and discipline rather than the doctrinal sen- 
timents of the Old Connection. They object to the old Methodists 
for having formed a hierarchy of priestly corporation, and say, that 
in so doing, they have robbed the people of those privileges, which, 
as members of the church of Christ, they are entitled to both by 
reason and scripture. The New Connection, therefore, profess to 
have aimed at establishing every part of their ecclesiastical consti- 
tution on popular principles, and to unite, as much as possible, the 
ministers and people in every department of it. This, they assure 
us, is quite contrary to the original government of the Methodists, 
which in the most important cases, is restricted to the preachers, as 
is manifest from the proceedings of their Conference, or yearly 
meeting : for of that august assembly no person who is not a tra- 
velling preacher is even allowed to enter as a member. They also 
accuse the " one hundred" preachers who constitute the annual 
Conference with having abused the power which they have assumed. 
Against these usurpations and abuses the New Connection have 
entered a formal protest — ^the particulars of which are enumerated 
in various publications, and particularly in the Preface to the life of 
Mr. Kilham written by Messrs. Thorn and Grundell, two of the 



272 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



preachers in that Connection. Mr. Kilham died at Nottingham 
in 1798. 

Though these are points on which the division seems mainly to 
rest, yet there a.re several other things that have contributed to it. 
It is frequently easy to foresee, and to calculate, the future changes 
in society which the lapse of time will produce ; and in no instance 
is this observation better warranted than in this division, which most 
thinking persons had long anticipated. The attachment of the Old 
Methodists to the established church of England, to which they 
were nurtured by Mr. Wesley and his earlier preachers — and also the 
dislike to the church in many others of the preachers and of th« 
societies, were never-failing subjects of contention among them. As 
all parties are distinguished in their contests by some badge or dis- 
criminating circumstance, so here, the receiving, or not receiving of 
the Lord's Supper in the established church was long considered as 
the criterion of Methodistic zeal or disaffection. Thus, the rupture 
that had been long foreseen by intelligent persons, and for which the 
minds of the Methodists had been undesignedly prepared, became 
inevitable when Mr. Wesley's influence no longer interfered. 

It is surely a subject of regret that in withdrawing from the old 
connection, and on the grounds of their alleged corruptions too, it 
should never occur to the Kilhamites, or New Connection, to have 
recourse to the New Testament for their guidance and direction in 
framing a constitution for their societies. It would seem that the 
example of the primitive apostolic churches, with their elders and 
deacons, is one of the last things to which human wisdom and 
prudence is disposed to listen in these matters. The reason, how- 
ever, may be easily found out; the plan upon which the first 
Christian churches were modelled under the direction of the inspired 
apostles, was in no respect adapted to gratify the natural pride and 
vanity of the human heart, but very much the contrary. The 
design of the whole was to train up the disciples in faith and holi- 
ness, in humility, self-denial, patience, disconformity to the world, 
and so render them meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. 
It allows of no lordship over God's heritage — affords no counte- 
nance whatever to the modern distinction between clergy and laity 
— places all the disciples of Christ upon the same level, that is, it 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLAiiKE, LL. D., F. A S. 273 

recognizes them all as brethren, having one common Fatiier in 
heaven; one Lord and Master, even Christ; and absolutely forbids 
them to lord it over one another. The office-bearers, namely, 
elders and deacons, are the servants of the churches for Jesus' 
sake, having no dominion over their faith, but are merely helpers 
of their joy. It doubtless appertains to the office of an elder, 
bishop, or presbyter, to rule the church of God, as well as to 
labour in the word and doctrine ; but if he rule Scriptural ly, he 
must never introduce any laws of his own — all he has to do is to 
bring forward the laws of Christ, as laid down in the Scriptures, 
and enforce obedience to them; and if any of the professed followers 
of the Lord refuse to regulate their conduct by these, they become 
the subjects of discipline, agreeable to Christ's own appointment. 
Matt, xviii. 15 — 18. In going before their brethren, the elders or 
bishops are required to set an example to the flock, in every chris- 
tian virtue — " righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meek- 
ness," 1 Tim. vi. 1 1, and thus, like an officer who leads an army 
down hill, he must, in the nature of things, be lowest in the com- 
pany ; just as the Captain of Salvation, in going before his flock, 
and furnishing an example for the imitation of all under shepherds, 
though Lord of all, chose to be the servant of all," Matt. xx. 25 — 28 ; 
John, xiii. 13 — 15. But to return from this digression — 

The Methodists of the New Connection profess to proceed upon 
liberal, open, and ingenuous principles, in the construction of their 
organized societies, and their ultimate decision in all disputed 
matters is in their popular annual assembly, chosen by certain 
rules, from among the preachers and societies. " It appears 
agreeable," say they, " both to reason and the customs of the 
primitive church, that the people should have a voice in the tempo- 
ral concerns of the societies, should vote in the election of church 
officers, and should give their suffrages in spiritual concerns." 
This subject, when discussed iri the Conference held at Leeds, in 
1797, produced a variety of arguments on both sides of the ques- 
tion, — and, on its being given against them, the dissentients pro- 
posed a plan for a new itinerancy, and formed themselves into a 
society, in order to carry it into immediate effect. Mr. William 
Thorn being chosen president, and Mr. Alexander Kilham, secre- 

2 N 



274 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITING?, 



tary. A constitution, or form of ecclesiastical government, suited 
to an itinerant ministry, drawn up by these two individuals, at the 
request of the meeting, was immediately printed, under the title of 
Outlines of a Constitution, proposed for the examination, amend- 
ment, and acceptance of the members of the Methodist New 
Itinerancy," which, with a few alterations, was accepted by this 
new conference of preachers and delegates. By this new code of 
laws the preachers and people are incorporated in all meetings for 
business, not by courtesy merely, or temporary concession, but by 
the essential principles of their constitution; for the private mem- 
bers select the class leaders — the leaders' meeting nominates the 
stewards, and the society confirms or rejects the nomination. The 
quarterly meetings are composed of the general stewards and re- 
presentatives chosen by the different societies of the circuits; and 
the fourth quarterly meeting of the year appoints the preacher 
and delegate of every circuit that shall attend the general con- 
ference. 

How far this new system excels that of the Old Connection, it is 
of little use to inquire — they are both of human dence, and nearly 
aLke repugnant to that which the wisdom of God hath deWsed for 
regulating the affairs of the kingdom of Christ in the world. It is 
remarkable, however, that, though this schism appears to have had 
its origin in an attempt to extend and secure the privileges of the 
people against clerical usurpation, it has greatly failed to attain 
those objects, or the people are totally regardless of their privileg-es, 
for its progress has hitherto been extremely slow. According- to 
the minutes of their Annual Conference, in 1822, they had then 
only twenty-two cu'cuits in England, three in Ireland, and one in 
Scotland, which comprehended in all, 133 chapels, 242 societies, 
fortj'-five circuit preachers, 328 local preachers, and 10,856 mem- 
bers. It may be doubted whether matters have at all progressed 
among them since the secession of Mr. Richai-d Watson, who came 
off, and became a leading person among those of the Old Connec- 
tion, more than a dozen years ago ; but other points of difference 
have lately started up, and given rise to other secessions which will 
be noticed hereafter. 

During the whole of the year 1796, Mr. Clarke applied himsel/ 



OF THF. HEV. ADAM CLAttK£, I.L. D., F. A. S. 



275 



to his studies so industriously that he greatly injured his health, 
though he never sat up late at night, ever holding it as a maxim, 
that, " a late morning student is a lazy one, and will seldom make 
a good scholar ; and that he who sits up late at night, not only 
burns his life's candle at both ends, but puts a red-hot poker to the 
middle." 

Towards the close of this year, Mr. Clarke, in the course of his 
reading, met with a curious Epigram in a French author, with 
which he was so much amused that he translated it, and sent both 
the Epigram and translation to one of the public journals, accom- 
panied by the following observations on the Reforniation, which 
will entitle them to insertion : — 

" So deplorable was the intellectual darkness of Europe, pre- 
viously to the Reformation, that many, even of the clergy, could 
neither write nor read. The sacred writings, which, under God, 
are the well-spring of life and knowledge, were universally 
neglected. Spurious traditions and worthless legends, were th« 
turbid fountains whence the doctrines of the church were derived 
and the religious conduct of the people regulated, and there was 
rarely an instance in which the trumpet did not give an uncertain 
sound. Barbarism had nearly gained its ancient ascendancy. As 
the voice of Revelation was not known — the Holy Scriptures being 
locked up from the people as dangerous to their salvation, — so the 
voice of Reason was little heeded ; and the human mind, having 
little or nothing to excite or employ its energies, was deeply sunk 
into an abyss of intellectual torpor and degradatjion. Learning did 
not exist ; sciences and arts were known only by their names ; and 
the neglect of education was so universal, and the inventive faculty 
so overloaded with the mummeries of a false religion, sanctioned 
and enforced by that sacerdotal domination which was paramount 
to all other power and authority, that trade languished ; commerce 
was almost totally unknown; and useful discoveries, for the amelio- 
ration of human life, were scarcely heard of in Europe. 

" Not only religion, but the republic of letters also, is under the 
highest obligation to the Reformation. When the Bible was 
unchained and translated into the vernacular tongues of the differ- 
ent nations of Europe, and disseminated by printing, piety to God, 



27G MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

long cold and nearly lifeless, became invigorated ; all the moral 
duties, being better understood through the medium of the Holy 
Scriptures, were more conscientiously practised ; genuine learning 
began to revive ; good laws were enacted ; civil government became 
more mild and efficient ; and the political state of man, in conse- 
quence, was greatly improved and ameliorated. Then was sung, 
by more than the heavenly host, ' Glory to God in the highest, 
and on earth peace and good will to men I' And to the eternal 
praise of the Author of this glorious work, the light which then 
sprung up has continued to shine with increasing lustre and 
benefit to the present time. 

" When he first the work began, 

Small and feeble was his day ; 
Now the Word doth swiftly run. 
Now it wins ita widening way : 

* More and more it spreads and grows, 

Ever mighty to prevail ; 
Sin's strong-holds it now o'erthrows, 
Shakes the trembling gates of hell.' 

" Of the ignorance that prevailed at the beginning of the Refor- 
mation, even among the clergy, the following fact, modified into 
French verse, by a poet of the Roman Catholic church, will be a 
sufficient proof :— 

* Quelqu* un desirant etre Pr^tre 
A Tevique se presenta : 
Lequel lui dit, si tu veux I'etre, 
Quot sunt septem sacrammia T 

Puis, il dit, Tres. — L* evique, Quas } 
* Sunt Fides, Spes, et Caritas.' 
Parblieu, tu as bien repondu ; 
Sur clerc qu'on d^p^che son cas ; 
n merite d'etre tondu.' 

" I ask pardon for the following free version : — 

' A crotchet came into a wiseacre's head. 
To encounter the priesthood for a morsel of bread. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F, A. S. 



S77 



Away to the bishop he instantly hies, 
Announces his business : — The prelate replies : 

* If you wish to be priested, and ^ide men to heaven, 
How many in number are the sacraments seven ?' 
Having studied awhile, he replies, ' They are Threb.* 
The prelate rejoins, ' Pray, sir, which may they be ?' 

* Faith, Hope, and Charity,' the scholar replies. 

* By the mass,' says the bishop, * you're wondrously wise, 
You've answered discreetly, your learning is sound ; 

Few bishops at present have lore so profound. 
See clerk that his orders be written with speed ; 
He merits the tonsure ; — and you shall be fee'd.' 

Here one knows not which to deplore most — the theology of 
the bishop, or the learning of the candidate." 

The health of Mr. Clarke, becoming exceedingly affected during 
the summer of the year 1797, it was pressingly urged upon him to 
take a trip to Margate, which he did, accompanied by some friends : 
and after staying a short time there the party proceeded to Rams- 
gate, whence he had a fine view of the Downs and Dover Cliff—- 
they also saw Calais, went to the top of the North Foreland Light- 
house, and saw Deal, Sandwich, and Pegwell Bay. From this 
excursion they returned to Margate, calling at Broadstairs, and 
Kingsgate, where Charles II. and the duke of York first landed 
after their return from France. '* We then came," says Mr. Clarke, 
" to a like-nothing-else sort of a building, raised as a memorial 
of the invasion of Hengist, when the Britons were expelled the isle^ 
of Thanet. This curious looking building is erected on one of the 
Tumuli. The g:round appeared to me next to sacred ; without 
doubt it was the first inhabited part of Great Britain — it was here 
that Julius Ceesar landed, and the Roman conquests began— and 
here, according to report, the Gospel was first preached to our 
forefathers." 

After a stay of ten days at Margate, Mr. Clarke and his friends 
took their departure for Warwickshire, being desirous of viewing 
Warwick and Kenilworth castles — the first the most perfect edifice 
of the kind, the second the finest ruin in the nation. Mr. Clarke 
transmitted a lively and somewhat humorous description of these 
objects of curiosity to his own family, mterspersed with anecdote 



278 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

and local history ; but the detail is somewhat foreign to the pages 
of biography and must therefore be omitted. The following anec- 
dotes are more in keeping, and deserve insertion. 

Returning home, he found his health considerably recruited and 
he vv ?s enabled to prosecute his usual ministerial and literary em- 
ployments with renewed vigour. One evening he left home in 
company with Mrs. Clarke to preach at Hoxton, and had taken 
with him, for some unexplained purpose, his manuscript notes on 
the Book of Job. After preaching he stepped into a friend's house 
in Hoxton, and was prevailed upon to stop to supper. He put 
down his manuscript on the side-board, and forgot to take it with 
liim when he went away. On the following morning he missed it, 
ind recollecting that he had left it behind him, he lost no time in 
going in quest of it, and arriving at his friend's house he had the 
mortification to find, that the servant, seeing some loose papers 
lying on the side-board, had taken them to her own account as 
lawful spoil, and folded up in them the pieces of candle left after 
supper on the preceding evening. When produced their appear- 
ance was most deplorable ! He hastened home, however, with his 
recovered store, declaring that, had the servant burnt them, instead 
of appropriating them to the use she had done, he should never, 
iii all probability, have had the courage to re- write those notes, nor 
possibly to have gone on with the comment itself, which during its 
progress was exposed to so many untoward circumstances that 
very little additional difficulty would entirely have disheartened 
him from proceeding with it. 

We shall take leave of this narrative of the London circuit, at 
this period, by the following curious anecdote. During the three 
years Mr. Clarke continued in the metropolis, he was, by his vari- 
ous studies and excessive application, acquiring extensive informa- 
tion, and also adding continually to his library. He possessed a 
pretty accurate knowledge of books, and was skilful in his selection 
of them ; often acquiring great literary curiosities by promptitude 
in seeking after them, the instant he understood they were to be 
met with. A bookseller's stall was a temptation he could with 
difficulty resist, so as to pass it without halting ! He was pretty well 
known, too, among the booksellers, who rarely failed to dispatch 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S 279 

to him one of their earliest catalogues oi second hand books. On 
the publication of the catalogue of the library of the Rev Mr. Fell, 
principal of the dissenting academy at Homerton, Mr. Clarke ob- 
served, " a black letter Bible," among the folios ! The day fixed 
for the sale happening to fall on, what was termed among the 
Methodists, a quarterly meeting day, which is a time appointed by 
that body for the adjustment of their accounts, &c., and which de- 
manded his personal presence during the very hours of sale, he 
commissioned his friend, Mr. William Baynes, of Paternoster Row, 
to attend the sale, and purchase for him the black letter Bible, if 
sold at a reasonable price. He did so, the book was put up, and 
Mr. Baynes had only one competitor, and on a trifling advance on a 
moderate last bid, it was knocked down to the bookseller. On 
enquiry Mr. Baynes found that his opponent was a gold-beater by 
trade, and that he had bid for the book merely with a view to cut- 
ting it up for his own use in the way of business ; accordingly as soon 
as he had gone to the extent of its value as waste paper he relin- 
quished the competition. 

As soon as the quarterly meeting was ended Mr. Clarke hastened 
from the City Road to Paternoster Row, to enquire after the 
chances of the auction, and was not a little gratified at finding the 
prize secured. That it was a black letter Bible was obvious 
enough at first sight : but of what precise date was the grand in- 
quiry ; for very- much of its nominal value depended upon its an- 
tiquity. After a careful examination, however, this point was as- 
certained so completely as to constitute it a literary curiosity — 
in fact, a treasure ! He had it immediately packed up into a 
parcel — and it made one of no small dimensions, being nearly a 
1 1 undred- weight — and putting it on his shoulder, budged off beneath 
his burden to his own house in Spitalfields. 

^ He now lost no time in making a more minute examination of 
his purchase, the result of which he thus inserted with his own 
hand, in the fly leaf. " This Bible, the first translation into the 
English language, and evidently from the orthography and diction, 
the oldest copy of that translation, was once the property of 
Thomas a- Woodstock, youngest son of Edward III. King of Eng- 
land, and brother to Edward the Black Prince, and John of Gaunt. 



280 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

Thomas a-Woodstock was born, a. d. 1355, and was supposed to 
have been smothered between two beds ; or, as others say, cause- 
levssly beheaded at Calais, September 8th, 1397, in the forty-second 
year of his age, by Thomas Mowbray, Earl Marshal of England, 
at the instance of his nephew. King Richard II. His arms appear 
on the shield at the top of the first page, and are the same as those 
on his monument in Westminster Abbey. In many respects, the 
language of this manuscript, is older than that found in most of 
those copies which go under the name of John Wiclif. This MS. was 
once in the possession of the celebrated Dr, John Hunter. It was 
found in a most shattered condition, and from the hay and bits of 
mortar that were in it, leads to this most natural conclusion, that 
it had been hid, probably during the Maryan persecution, in stacks 
of hay, and at other times built up in walls, and not unfrequently, 
it would appear, that it had been secreted under ground, as was 
evidenced from the decayed state of many of its pages, especially 
the early ones." (Signed) "Adam Clarke." 

The pages of this literary morceau which had sustained any in- 
jury fiom the unworthy treatment to which it had been exposed, 
vcie carefully repaired by the skilful hand of Mr. Clarke; the 
writing itself being only in the first page affected. All the rest he 
curiously and neatly mended with parchment stained to the colour 
of the original MS. For this neatness, in reference to books, 
Mr. Clarke was surpassed by very few ; and the writer of this can 
attest from personal observation that his library, even in external 
appearance, in neatness and symmetry, did great credit to its 
owner's taste and talent. If it were possible to restore a tattered 
leaf, shreds of paper stained to the shade of the original were sure 
to be immediately applied to preserve what was left; and many of 
his female friends contributed to him of their stout old fashioned 
silks, with which he inlaid defective Oriental MSS. covers, or pasted 
down the backs, not choosing to trust into the hands of book-binders, 
what they might easily injure, but could never restore. Add to 
which that many of such manusciipts would not have admitted of 
the English mode of binding, and could only be done effectually 
in the mode he adopted. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 281 

During- the autumn of the year 1798, Mr. Clarke underwent a 
trying dispensation of providence in the death of his father, whose 
j emova] to England and establishment in Manchester, were men- 
tioned in the former section. He had been informed by letter that 
his father's health was in a very declining state, but his own ill 
health, added to his numerous engagements as a minister, and 
to many domestic circumstances, put it totally out of his power 
to gratify his earnest wishes of paying him a visit. Besides, he 
was unable to persuade himself that his parent's earthly race was 
so near a close — he fondly hoped he might yet be spared, and 
therefore wrote to an old and intimate friend, namely, John Ber- 
wick, Esq. of Manchester, entreating the favour of his kind atten- 
tion to his venerable father, and to see that he wanted for nothing 
that human aid could administer. All this was duteously and most 
religiously attended to, but '* there is no discharge in that warfare.' 
Mr. Clarke had the painful task to undergo of receiving a letter 
from Mr. Berwick, dated November 2nd, 1798, informing him that 
the good old man had sunk rapidly under his malady, but died 
full of faith and hope. 

This was a trying stroke for Mr. Clarke, who loved and honoured 
his father, and its coming upon him so unexpectedly as it did, 
added greatly to its poignancy. He laid it deeply to heart, and 
expressed himself as if the bands of life were loosened around him, 
and that he wished to " go and die with him." His mental and 
physical energies were for a time paralyzed, and he appeared to be 
brought to the side of the grave. He sent immediately for his 
widowed mother, who, as soon as possible, came and resided with 
him while he was on the Bristol circuit, and when it was necessary 
for him to leave that city, she went to reside with her own daugh- 
ter, Mrs. Exley, who was settled there. 

Mr. Clarke, sen., was interred in Ardwick church yard, in the 
vicinity of Manchester ; and ever afterwards as his son Adam had 
occasion to pass the cemetery, whether on foot or horseback, he 
would invariably take off his hat and hold it in his hand until he 
had made his way beyond the church yard, to manifest how much 
he honoured, as well as loved, " this guide of his youth." Some 

20 



282 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

may feel disposed to smile at this, but it was only one among the 
many singularities of this amiable man. 

In the year 1797, Mr. Clarke may be said to have commenced 
his career of authorship by the publication of a pamphlet, entitled 
" A Dissertation on the Use and Abuse of Tobacco," in which he 
dispassionately enters into an enumeration of its various and inju- 
rious effects, treating the subject not only philosophically, but 
considering it in a moral point of view ; but of this more hereafter, 
when we come to take a review of the Doctor's writings in regular 
succession. 

SECTION XII. 

Mr. Clarke s biography continued, from the year 1798 to 1805. — 
Bristol Circuit, Liverpool Circuit, 1801—3. — 

Manchester Circuit, 1803 — 5. 

It must be obvious to every reflecting mind that the life of a 
Methodist preacher was ill-adapted to a man of literary pursuits^ 
and little calculated to advance his progress towards that " proud 
temple of fame," which Mr. Clarke aspired to enter. Not only the 
annual removal of his place of abode, to which he was liable at the 
decision of Conference, but also the transference of his library from 
place to place, the packing and unpacking of his books, the pre- 
vious preparations and the subsequent arrangements which were 
all unavoidable, were so many impeding circumstances that could 
not but break in upon his studies, and tend materially to check his 
career. But when to these occ^isional impediments we add the 
almost incessant calls that such an one has upon him to make 
preparation for the pulpit, deliver his sermons, visit his flock, 
perambulate his Circuit, and attend to various other duties inciden- 
tal to his office, one is filled with astonishment at the extent of Mr. 
Clarke's reading, and still more so at his wonderful attainments in 
the knowledge of languages, which he seems to have learned almost 
by intuition — and, lastly, that, encompassed about with all these 
difficulties, he should have found leisure to write and publish the 
works he has done : — his Commentary alone was sufficient to occupy 
a man's life ! 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



283 



At the meeting of Conference, July 1 798, in conformity with the 
regulations of the Methodist itinerancy, which does not permit a 
preacher to continue more than three years at one time on the 
same circuit, Mr. Clarke was removed from the Metropolis to 
Bristol, where he v?as allowed to remain stationary for three years 
lono-er — the term he had continued in London. "We cannot doubt 
that he quitted this latter place, with all its circle of duties, friend- 
ships, and literary avocations, with considerable regret. It was 
during that period that his acquaintance with Mr. Butterworth 
commenced, as related in a preceding section ; and to him and 
many others he had become most affectionately attached. But he 
bowed with submission to Him who fixes the bounds of our habita- 
tion, and cheerfully entered upon his labour's in that ancient mart 
of commerce, where he was not long in finding kindred minds and 
adding to the number of his friends. 

It was during his residence in Bristol, that, probably with the 
view of acquiring a more intimate acquaintance with the German 
language, he undertook a translation of " Sturm's Reflections on 
the Works of God and his Providence," which appeared in the year 
1800, and met with a very favourable reception from the public. 
This valuable work, had long before been in an English dress. It 
first made its appearance in the year 1788, printed at Edinburgh 
in 3 volumes 12mo., but by whom translated does not appear, and 
was probably done through the medium of a French translation. 
In the year 1791, it was again translated, " by a gentleman," and 
printed in London, in one volume. Both these editions were very 
successful, but neither of them contained the whole of Sturm. The 
field was therefore open to Mr. Clarke to give his countrymen a 
faithful version of the German original entire, without mutilation, 
which was done in four volumes 12mo., and with such success that 
a large impression was quickly disposed of, and a second called for 
in a short time. 

In what year the following circumstance took place is not very 
evident, but it was obviously during the time Mr. Clarke was on 
the Bristol Circuit, and in all probability, before Sturm's Reflections 
had issued from the press and before the returns from that success- 
ful speculation could be realized. 



284 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

Mr. Clarke at this, period had fully before him the publication 
of his great work, the " Commentary," and therefore availed him- 
self of every opportunity of writing notes to be afterwards incor- 
porated. But though he had long turned his attention to the study 
of Oriental literature, he greatly felt the want of a good Arabic 
Dictionary, without which he found it impossible to bring forth his 
knowledge in the form of criticisms on the holy scriptures. Finding 
it impossible to get on as he wished without such help, he wrote to 
his bookseller in London, if possible, to procure him " Meninski's 
Thesaurus," a scarce and very expensive work. His bookseller 
returned for answer that a copy had been sold the preceding day, 
at a public sale, for thirty pounds, and fallen into the hands of a 
brother in the trade, who was ready to part with it, but the lowest 
price would be " forty guineas" — that he could even make more of 
it, but would keep it forty-eight hours for the answer ! Apprehen- 
sive that this was a sum beyond Mr. Clarke's means, the bookseller 
lost no time in apprizing him of it, and that it must be paid for 
'prompt. Unwilling to miss the golden opportunity which might 
not soon recur again, Mr. Clarke addressed a letter to a friend, re- 
questing to " borrow that sum for three months" explaining the 
circumstances which occasioned the application : at the same time 
instructing the bookseller to call upon that friend for the money. 
But how was he confounded at receiving a letter, in course of post, 
from his friend, stating his astonishment at the request — the mag- 
nitude of the sum — forty pounds for a Dictionary ! Was it possible 
his friend Clarke could know any thing of the value of money ? — 
then followed many sage admonitions to confine his wishes and 
wants within the limits of his circumstances" — and finally conclu- 
ding the letter by saying that, under all considerations he had 
and must continue to refuse to lend the money." 

Well, what was now to be done ? Another copy of Meninski's 
Thesaurus, might not soon again be in the market, and Mr. Clarke 
found himself utterly unable to proceed without it. Thus circum- 
stanced, he determined to ask his friend Mr. Ewer, of Bristol, to 
lend him the sum needed ; and posting to him without loss of time, 
he thus accosted him : " Mr. Ewer, I want to borrow from you 
forty pounds for three months, at the end of which I will repay 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 285 



you ; will you lend me that sum ? " — " Yes, Mr. Clarke," replied 
his kind friend — " twenty times that sum, for twenty times as long, 
if you wish it — and you may have it to day." The sum was ad- 
vanced — Mr. Clarke enclosed it to the bookseller, who procured 
the " Meninski, " which became his constant study-companion 
through the remainder of his days ; nor, without it, could he have 
gone on with his Commentary Notes to his satisfaction. At the 
stipulated period, the forty pounds were duly returned, and ever 
afterwards did he appreciate the value of him who had been his 
friend in need. 

In the year 1802, and while he was upon the Bristol Circuit, 
Mr. Clarke edited and published, " A Bibliographical Dictionary, 
containing a Chronological Account, alphabetically arranged, of 
the most curious, scarce, useful, and important books, in all De- 
partments of Literature, which have been published in Latin, Greek, 
Coptic, Hebrew, Samaritan, Syriac, Chaldee, Ethiopic, Arabic, 
Persian, Armenian, &c. from the infancy of Printing to the begin- 
ning of the 19th century : including the whole of the 4th edition of 
Dr. Harwood's view of the Classics, with innumerable Additions 
and Amendments ; to which are added an Essay on Bibliography, 
with a general and particular account of the different authors on 
that subject in Latin, French, German, and English, with a de- 
scription of their works ; the first and best editions, with Critical 
Judgments on the whole, extracted from the best Bibliographical 
and Typographical Authorities ; and an account of the best English 
translation of each Greek and Latin Classic," in 6 vols. 1 2mo, to 
which in the year 1806, he added two vols, more, of a " Bibliogra- 
phical Miscellany or Supplement." In after years the author 
corrected and interleaved a copy with many thousand additions 
and corrections, but it is probable he was deterred from issuing it 
from the press in an improved state, in consequence of Mr. Dibdin's 
" Introduction to the knowledge of rare and valuable editions of the 
Greek and Roman Classics," which was published in the interim, 
and has been a very popular publication and run rapidly through 
four or five editions. 

Mr. Clarke published, about the samj time, a small work, mostly 
extracted from the preceding, entitled, " A Succinct Account of 



'286 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

Polyglott Bibles, from the publication of that by Porrus in the 
year 1516, to that of Reineccius in 1750, including several curious 
particulars relative to the London Polyglott, and Castel's Heptaglott 
Lexicon, not noticed by Bibliographers." He also published A 
Succinct Account of the principal editions of the Greek Testament, 
from the first printed at Complutum, in 1514, to that by professor 
Griesbach, in 1797. 

These several works display an extensive range of acquaintance 
with the subjects and contain a mass of information, while they are 
a guide to the study of Biblical literature. To the author's own 
mind, they served as pioneers smoothing the way to the arduous 
work to which he appeared to be thus unconsciously led, and for 
which his constant habit of critical examination so eminently 
qualified him. 

Among the more remarkable literary acquaintances which Mr. 
Clarke made during his stay at Bristol, is to be registered the 
family of Dr. Fox, who kept the well known asylum for insane 
persons at the Fish Ponds, near that city. This gentleman had a 
son, or brother, Mr. Charles Fox, a distinguished Oriental scholar 
—a young man of very superior talent, good sense, extremely 
refined taste, and pleasing manners. His delight was Persian 
poetry, of which he translated a considerable quantity ; and, had 
his life been spared, he designed to have given it to the world ; 
but he was prematurely cut off, without leaving his manuscripts 
so far completed as to be fit to meet the public eye. He had, 
however, previously distinguished himself in the Republic of Letters, 
by a volume of Poems, containing " the Plaints, Consolations, and 
Delights of Achmed Ardebeili,* a Persian Exile, with Notes, His- 
torical and Explanatory." The Poems abound with beauties, their 
style is completely Oriental, and the Notes not only evince the 
Eastern scholar, but are pleasingly calculated to form and improve 
a taste for this department of literature. 

In friendly intercourse with this accomplished individual, who 
united the gentlest of manners with his elegance of pen, adding to 
his many and rare endowments the finest ikill as a draughtsman. 



* An assumed title to conceal tlie amiable author himself. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 287 

Mr. Clarke obtained occasional relaxation from his labours, with 
satisfaction and delight. They roved together, in thought, converse, 
and study, through Eastern scenes, and familiarized themselves 
with those topics which in after years bore so strongly upon Mr. 
Clarke's biblical studies. For the following singular anecdote, 
Mr. Clarke was indebted to the father or brother of the young 
gentleman now mentioned, who, as already said, had a large and 
admirably conducted establishment for the reception of deranged 
persons. 

" In my visits, among my patients, one morning," said Dr. Fox, 
I went into a room, where two, who were acquaintances of each 
other, were accustomed to live. Immediately I entered, I noticed 
an unusual degree of dejection about one of them, and a feverish 
kind of excitement in the other. I enquired what was the matter. 
" Matter," said the excited one, " matter enough ! he has done for 
himself! " Why, what has he done ? " Oh, he has only swallowed 
the poker ! " During this short conversation the other looked in- 
creasingly mournful ; and on my inquiring what was the matter 
with him, he repeated, "he has told you true enough; I have 
swallowed the poker, and I do not know what I shall do with it 1 " 
" I will tell you how it happened," said the first ; " my friend and 
I were sitting by the fire, talking about different things, when I 
offered to lay him a wager that he could not eat any of 'the poker. 
He said he could and would; took it up — twisted the end of it 
backward and forward between the bars of the grate, and at last 
broke off" some inches of it, which he instantly swallowed, and he 
has looked melancholy ever since." " I did not believe," said Dr. 
Fox, " a word of this tale ; and I suppose the narrator guessed as 
much," for he added, " O, you can see that it is true, for there is the 
rest of the poker." I w ent to the grate and examined the poker, 
which, being an old one, had been much burned ; and where the 
action of the fire had been fiercest, and had worn away the iron, a 
piece of between two and three inches had been wrenched off" and 
was missing. Still I could hardly credit that the human stomach 
could receive such a dose, and remain, " feeling," as the professed 
swallower of it said, nothing particular." However, the constant 
affirming of the first, united to the assent and rueful looks of the 



288 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

second, induced me to use the patient as though the account were 
true : I administered very strong medicines and watched their effects 
constantly. The man ate and drank and slept as usual, and ap- 
peared to suffer nothing but from the effect of the medicines. At 
last, to my astonishment, the piece of the poker came away and the 
man was as well as ever. The iron had undergone a regular pro- ^ 
cess of digestion ; and the surface of it was deeply honey-combe*! 
by the action of the juices. This was a most singular case, and 
proves how the God of nature has endowed our system with powers 
of sustaining and redressing the effects of our own follies." 

In 1801, Mr. Clarke was transferred to the Liverpool Circuit* 
being the second time he was stationed there ; and though it afforded 
him the prospect of again meeting many kind friends, yet it in- 
volved the leaving others in Bristol, to whom he was affectionately 
attached, and whose study it was to render his residence among 
them as pleasant as possible. The family of Dr. Fox has been 
already mentioned as of this number, and to it must be added 
those of Stock, Arthur, Ewer, Roberts, &c. with whom Mr. Clarke 
always felt himself at home, maintaining with them the most 
unbroken intimacy. Their friendship was founded on mutual 
esteem, evinced on both sides by mutual good offices, which led 
Mr. and Mrs. Clarke often to say, they never met with more kind, 
more estimable, or more endearing friends than in Bristol. 

The following extracts from a long letter addressed to Mr. 
Clarke, by Mr. Charles Fox, dated Bristol, Dec. 10th, 1802, are 
not only amusing and instructive, but also entitled to the reader's 
notice, as illustrative of the character of that amiable person. 

1 hope, ere this, you have found some literary friends in Liver- 
pool ; though a place of dashing speculative trade is not likely to 
be their resort. The account you give me of the Oriental teacher 
is truly curious. I have lately met with a Jew Rabbi, a man of 
more learning than they generally possess, who was formerly a 
priest of the synagogue of Falmouth, where I knew him about 
twenty-four years since. 1 have half a mind to get him to teach 
me the rudiments of Hebrew, which he understands grammatically ; 
but 1 am afraid it may prove a mistress that may provoke the 



OF THi: REV ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A.S. 



289 



jealousy of my Persic w-fe, and not unjustly, by estranging her for 
a while from my bosom, and I Jove the latter more dearly than 
ever 

" I have been ploughmg up the soil of various authors; Jamy, 
Shahy, Asaphy, Hafiz, Kosroo, and Saady, and am now more than 
ever convinced that none but a mere dead, dry, flat-so uled gram- 
marian can ever find delight in making prose translations of poetry. 
1 hope you will never attempt any thing in that way, beyond that 
kind of analysis which may prove of the utmost service to your 
progress as a student of the language. I like your mode of going 
through " Jones's Grammar" exceedingly; it tends both to explain 
and infix ; but from poetical quotations we never can obtain the 
true knowledge of a language. Some of your oldest prose works 
will give you the real idiom. The Arabic has been grafted most 
profusely on the old stock. If I were in the habit of swearing, I 
should load that abominable hermaphrodite mixture with maledic- 
tions enough to sink every ship in the Persian gulph. Any one 
wh(D can admire it must be more void of taste than a Calmuc, or 
Yakutskan Tartar. The enlightened president of an Asiatic 
Society, at Calcutta might do much towards putting it out of 
vogue ; the people themselves do not love it ; pedantry is now its 
chief support, A gentleman who lately stood during the service 
at the door of a mosque in Bengal, and who knew the Imaum, 
asked him what he had been reading and praying for ? He 
replied, * I cannot tell any more than the congregation. ' Why 
so ?' ' Because,' said he, ' it is in Arabic, which we learn to read 
by rote ; but none except an Arabian, or a conjuror, can ever fully 
understand it.' 

" My translations of poetry are about two inches and a half in 
thickness, closely written ; I mean those yet unpublished. Leily 
and Mejnoon, is a serious and extensive work ; it increases in 
interest and beauty to the end. I really think it one of the finest 
poems ever written, and lament the insufficiency of the English 
language to do it justice, especially in my feeble hands : but you 
well know pains have not been spared as far as my efforts were 
adequate to the attempt. The translation of poetry is no easy 
task No one can do it successfully who is incapable of producing 

2 P 



290 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRfTlNGS, 

originals. The translator of words will never do it; neither will he 
who can spare one word for the world, or its concerns, while he 
holds the pen. It requires the whole man. 

Dr. Ryland has shewn me this evening a very curious letter, 
written to him by a convert made by the Baptist missionaries in 
India. It is beautifully written in Sanscrit, and accompanied by a 
translation. You have been very fortunate in meeting with so 
many manuscripts. I hope you will find an adequate satisfaction 
in them ; my wishes in that way are more bounded — I seek poetry. 
There my talent for translation lies, rather than for history or 
other prose works.' 

Mr. Clarke had not long taken up his abode in Liverpool before 
he projected the formation of a society for literary and scientific 
purposes, for which he drew up a code of rules, and organized its 
constitution. A printed copy of these rules, under the title of 
" Rules of the Philological Society," instituted at Liverpool, 
December the 18th, 1801, was accompanied or followed by a 
printed list of questions to be considered and discussed by the 
members of the society. Both the rules and questions, as well as 
the introductory address, were the fruits of Mr. Clarke's mind, and 
he was unanimously chosen " President of the Philological So- 
ciety," which produced some valuable papers, and excited a con- 
siderable spirit of inquiry into scientific knowledge. 

It is no way surprising, that under the pressure of these numer- 
ous and varied pursuits and multiplied labours, the health of the 
subject of this memoir should be liable to great interruptions and 
declensions. He was at this time frequently taken suddenly ill, 
and to such a degree as to be almost instantly deprived of all 
sensation. The family and his friends became greatly alarmed for 
his life, and in April 1802, he was prevailed upon to take a 
journey to London, accompanied by a friend, to obtain the best 
medical advice which the metropolis afforded. Among others Dr. 
Pearson was consulted, who told him he must totally cease from 
all mental and bodily exertion, except such as could be taken in 
the cultivation of a garden, or riding on horseback — adding, that 
he knew not whether the disorder had not already proceeded too 
far to admit of cure. He pronounced the ventricles of the heart to 



OF THE RF.V. ADAM CLARKC, LL.D., F.A.S. 291 

be diseased, and assured him that if he did not instantly desist 
from his studies and literary pursuits, he would die in a very little 
time — and die suddenly ! 

While Mr. Clarke was in London on this occasion a curious 
circumstance occurred, which serves to illustrate the " great cry 
and little wool" that is to be found among the big wigs and high 
sounding titles in a certain quarter. The case was to this effect : 
During the last war our gallant countryman, Sir Sydney Smith, 
who signalized himself so prodigiously at the siege of Acre, by 
turning the tide of success against the great Napoleon, had taken 
from the French General Menou, who succeeded Buonaparte in the 
command of the army in Egypt, a very curious and ancient stone, 
which the General was particularly anxious to convey to France as a 
matter of amusement and speculation for the members of the 
National Institute, to accompany the spoliations of Italy. It 
seems indeed to have been so highly prized, that the French 
government endeavoured to make the restoration of it one item of 
the definitive treaty. When brought to England it was presented 
to the Royal Society of Antiquaries, and deposited by that 
learned body at Somerset House. There was a threefold inscrip- 
tion upon it — one in hieroglyphics, the other Greek, but the third 
baffled the skill of all the cognoscenti — it was said to be in a 
language utterly unknown ! All the literati of the metropolis had 
been to view this curiosity — several members of the Asiatic So- 
ciety — the famous Sanscrit scholar, Charles Wilkins, F. R. S., &c.; 
but none of them could find out the matter of which the stone was 
compounded, nor the third inscription. It was said to pour con- 
tempt upon all modern learning, and to be in a language that had 
been utterly lost. From the Greek inscription it was made out to 
relate to the deification of one of the Ptolemies, a race of kings in 
ancient Egypt, consequently must be several hundred years older 
tlian the Christian era. 

Some of Mr. Clarke's friends were desirous that he should see it, 
with the view of trying his hand at this puzzling question, and 
spoke to the Secretary of the Society in whose charge it was. The 
latter consented to his seeing it, though, as Mr. Clarke thought, he 
evinced, on the occasion, no small portion of hauteur. The sequel 



292 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE^ MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

is best told in Mr. Clarke's own words, thus — " Arrived at Somer- 
set House — I had only begun to look at the stone, when the 
member (of the Asiatic Society) who is employed in making out 
the Greek inscription, came m, I suppose, by appointment. I 
viewed it silently for some time. Doctor. Well, sir, what do you 
think of it ? A. C. Why, sir, it is certainly very curious. Doctor. 
What do you think the stone is ? Some suppose it to be porphyry, 
others granite; but none are agreed. A. C. Why, sir, it is neither 
porphyiy nor granite ; it is basaltes. Doctor. Basaltes, think you ? 
A. C. Yes, sir, I am certain it is nothing but basaltes, interspersed 
with mica and quartz : I pledge myself it will strike fire with flint." 
This produced some conversation, in which the other gentleman 
took a part; at last Mr. Clarke's opinion became current. He 
then measured the stone, and the Doctor finding he was doing it 
secundum artem, was glad to take down the dimensions : after which 
the " Unknown Inscription" came into review. "A, C. This 
inscription is Coptic, and differs only from the printed Coptic, in 
Wilkins's Testament, as printed Persian does from manuscript. 
Dr. Woide's Coptic Grammar was brought out of the library, and 
I demonstrated my proposition ! Thus, in a few minutes was de- 
livered into their hands a key, by which the whole may be made 
out." 

Mr. Clarke returned to Liverpool with an improved state of 
health, resumed his labours, and continued there, until the Con 
ference at their Anniversary Meeting in 1803, appointed him to 
the Manchester circuit a second time. Previous, however, to his 
removal, he was thrown into deep affliction by the loss of his only 
brother, Mr. Tracy Clarke, surgeon, of Maghull, who sunk pre- 
maturely under the accumulated labours of his profession, in the 
forty-fifth year of his age. He had been his companion almost 
from childhood, and his friend from the very dawn of his conscious 
being. It is easy to conceive, therefore, that the affectionate 
recollections of childhood, the alternate day of toil and school, the 
lesson taught and communicated, as formerly mentioned — all these 
fond remembrances must have added poignancy to a loss, which is, 
under any circumstances, felt to be severe. The only mitigation of 
his grief arose from tb^ persuasion that his brother had made a 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 293 

blessed change, and was now with the Lord, in whose presence he 
hoped to meet him again. 

On his settlement in Manchester, Mr. Clarke undertook to 
instruct a class of young men in the Hebrew and Greek languages; 
for which purpose he opened his study to them every morning 
from five to seven. To three or four of these, who afterwards 
entered the ministry, this course of elementary Biblical instruction 
was eminently useful in fitting them for more ably filling their 
higli and holy calling. 

In 1804, Mr. Clarke gave to the public an improved edition of 
the " Abbe Fleury's Manners of the Ancient Israelites :" an under- 
taking of no great extent or labour. There were already two 
translations of the work extant in our language ; one by Richard 
Gough, the illustrious antiquary, which first made its appearance 
in 1750; and another by the Rev. E. Farnworth, in 1756; so that 
Mr. Clarke did not translate the book anew. His labour was 
restricted to that of introducing several additions from the Appa- 
ratus Biblicus of- Father Lamy, supplying a few notes, a life of the 
author, and a copious index. In this state the book has reached a 
third or fourth edition, if not more ; but the quantum meruit of 
Mr. Clarke, in -relation to the publication, is not to be rated very 
high. It cannot be doubted, however, that his name on the title 
page was of great value to his friend, W. Baynes : it operated as a 
passport to many a hand 1 When the second edition was about to 
make its appearance, Mr. Clarke wished to prefix a dedication, 
which he got printed, and sent the proof to two friends to whom it 
was addressed — both of whom returned it with their joint thanks^ 
but they each declined having their names affixed to the work- 
not a little to the mortification of Mr. Clarke, whose feelings were 
evidently hurt by the refusal. The dedication was consequently 
suppressed, and the book was left to make its way in the world on 
the evidences of its own utility — unpatronized by great names. 
Mr. Clarke, however, profited by the repulse ; for it made him, 
ever afterwards, scrupulous to avoid putting his literary property in 
the same kind of jeopardy. 

During the year 1804, the Eclectic Review was projected by some 
literary persons among the Evangelical class of Dissenters, and Mr, 



294 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

Clarke was earnestly requested to co-operate with them, and to lend 
his able assistance in reviewing some Hebrew and other Oriental 
publications. The Rev. S. Greatheed of Newport- Pagnell, who 
had consented to become Editor pro tempore^ addressed several 
letters to him in the months of October and November, inviting him 
to become a regular contributor, to which he at length consented. 
Accordingly he received two Hebrew Tracts by Mr. Granville 
Sharp, which had then recently been published, both of which he 
reviewed for the first number of that Journal. He also furnished a 
review of Sir William Jones's Persian Grammar, and other works 
on oriental literature, which contributed not a little to the respect- 
ability of this new periodical. Mr. Greatheed's letters afforded 
ample proof of the high estimation in which Mr. Clarke's services 
were held. 

During the year 1804 Mr. Clarke published, " A Succinct Ac- 
count of the principal editions of the Greek Testament, from the 
first, printed atComplutum in 1514, to that by Professor Griesbach 
in 1797, arranged in chronological order, together with the chief 
Editions of this Sacred Book in three or more languages, commonly 
called Polyglottj with a Short Account of its principal ancient and 
modern Versions, alphabetically arranged :" To this useful tract 
was also added, " Observations on the text of the Three Divine 
Witnesses, accompanied with a plate containing two very correct 
fact-similies of 1 John v. 7, 8, and 9, as they stand in the first edi- 
tion of the New Testament, printed at Complutum in 1514, and in 
the Codex Montfortic, a Manuscript marked G 97, in Trinity Col- 
lege, Dublin." 

This tract contains a variety of curious and important knowledge, 
such as every scholar will appreciate, especially the Theological 
student, whom it will save a vast expence of time and trouble in 
having the subject so amply investigated for him. 

Mr. Clarke continued his active labours, both ministerial and 
literary, during the two years he remained in Manchester, and his 
health continued in an improving state, which he no doubt owed in 
some measure to the affectionate attention of his friends. Afflic- 
tion, however, assailed his peace here again; and he was called to 
sorrow for the death of his youngest little giil, after a protracted 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



295 



illness arising from the hooping-cough. During the whole of her 
illness she was most assiduously attended by Dr. Agnew, of Man- 
chester, an intimate friend of the family. He could not but mark 
with concern, the sorrow, fatigue, and anxiety which the dear little 
creature's illness occasioned its parents : coming in one day and 
finding Mr. Clarke almost sinking in mind and body, beneath his 
lovely burden, the Doctor could not help exclaiming, " Mr. Clarke, 
if God does not see good to take that poor child very soon,^ I fear 
death will take you !" Happily, however, that hour was not then 
distant; she died when she had just completed her fifth year. The 
grief which the indulgent father experienced at the loss of this child 
was deep and poignant, and it was some time before he recovered 
his ordinary tone of mind and feeling; nor could he ever afterwards 
hear her name mentioned without considerable emotion. 

The Philological Society has been already mentioned, as insti- 
tuted in Liverpool, in the year 1801 : but one of its wings ex- 
tended to Manchester, and when Mr. Clarke came to reside there, 
it flourished greatly under his auspices. He transmitted a copy of 
the " Rules and Questions of that Institution," through the hands of 
Mr. Butterworth, to the late Earl Stanhope, a nobleman distin- 
guished for his literary and scientific pursuits, who returned the 
following communication through the same medium. 

Sir, — May I begyou to return my best thanks to your brother-in- 
law, Mr. Adam Clarke, for his kind communication of the Rules of 
the Literary Society, at Manchester, and for the 171 Questions 
thereunto annexed. It rejoices me to see such commendable efforts 
making to diffuse intellectual light. May Almighty God grant that 
those efforts may be attended with success. Both Mr Clarke and 
you will be pleased to hear of the Stereotype Office of Mr. Wilson, 
in Duke Street, Lincoln's-Inn-fields ; and likewise of the Printing 
Press which I have invented. I hope that a few years will make 
an alteration in the state of learning and literature. I have great 
expectatiDns from the well-directed and persevering exertions of 
well-intentioned men. I trust I shall some day request Mr. Clarke's 
acceptance, and your's also, of two works which I intend to publish. 
The one is on the Art of Printing, and its recent improvements ; the 
other on Logic j and it will have, I believe, for its title, The Science 



296 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

of Reasoning clearly explained upon new principles." It is a sub- 
ject which I have been considering for upwards of thirty years, and 
relative to which I have made the most important discoveries. 
" I wish you many happy years ; and beg you to believe me ever, 
" Your most faithful fellow citizen, 

" Stanhope.' 



Prior to his quitting Manchester for another station, Mr. Clarke 
received the following gratifying token of respect and esteem, from 
the members of the Philological Society. 

" At a Meeting of the Philological Society of Manchester, held 
on the 9th day of August 1805, it was resolved unanimously ; 

" That in consideration of the many obligations which the Philo- 
logical Society is under to the Rev. Adam Clarke, their original 
and learned President, for his unwearied solicitude for its welfare, 
his able and impartial conduct in the Chair, and for the high honour 
•which his uniform attachment to its interests has conferred upon it ; 
the respective members of it most respectfully present him with this 
their Vote of Thanks previously to his removal from Manchester. 

" Signed by order, and in behalf of the Philological Society. 

" William Johns, Vice-President. 
" Joseph Barber, 
" John Fox, 



I Secretaries. 



This Vote of Thanks was accompanied by a letter couched in still 
stronger expressions of regard : Among other things it said, 
" The Philological Society begs you to accept its best wishes for 
your happiness, and that you will be assured that, whilst it has exis- 
tence, the name of Adam Clarke will be always dear to its recol- 
lection, and will operate as a perpetual exciter of gratitude in the 
breasts of its present members, who will often revert to the hours of 
happiness which they have enjoyed in their association with you : 
and to the intellectual improvement, which they have derived from 
it." " Signed &c. &c." 



Nor did they content themselves with a mere written testimony 
of regard, but embodied their thanks in a more enduring form. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



297 



I'liey presented him with a pair of large silver cups, each holding 
a pint, and beautifully ornamented with a border of oak leaves, 
round the outer brim — and on each of them the following inscrip- 
tion : — 

Ex Dono 
Societatis Philologicse Mancuniensis 

Reverendo Adamo Clarke, 
Proesidi Dilectissimo et Diligentissimo 
In 
Amicitise 
Gratique Animi 
Plurimis promeritis 

Testimonium 
XIV Die Februarii, 

MDCCCV. 

SECTION XIII. 

Preliminary Reflections — Mr. Clarke receives a second appointment 
to the London Circuit, a. D. 1805. — Becomes one of the Committee 
of the Bible Society — And is created Doctor of Laws, 1808 

It was the remark of one who had himself tasted of the bitter 
draught of calamity, that there never yet was found any thing great 
in the church of God, that was not nurtured in the school of adver- 
sity. There is a natural lightness and volatility in the human 
mind which requires to be chastised and disciplined, before it be 
tutored to habits of industry and application, without which nothing 
great in the field of literature was ever achieved. Some one has 
said of Johnson, that Caliban in the literary world, that, had he 
been in affluent circumstances in early life, he would have resem- 
bled an ox turned into a field of clover ; he would have gorged 
himself to repletion and satiety, and wasted his life in luxury and 
dissipation. But he was called to provide for the day that passed 
over his head, and this goaded him to the exertion of those asto- 
nishing powers of mind, with which, for the benefit of others, the 
God of nature had gifted him. 

2Q 



298 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

Reflections of this kind cannot be thought out of place in a me- 
moir of Adam Clarke, -whose history, so far as we have hitherto 
traced it, serves in no ordinary degree to exemplify the truth of 
what has been said. We see him rising from a humble origin, and 
at one period of his boyish days abandoned to despair as an in- 
corrigible dunce — ^when lo ! the mind which was considered an en- 
tire blank, and incapable of tuition, springs at once into activity 
and life, and discovers an insatiable thirst for learning. Still, how- 
ever, the means are wanting to a ready gratification of this lauda- 
ble desire— his circumstances in life unhappily debar his access to 
the great seminaries of learning, and the deficiency must be sup- 
plied, if supplied at all, by his own industry. Books are necessary 
to facilitate his studies ; but the means of procuring those are out 
of his reach, except in so far as his indefatigable exertions serve to 
furnish him with them. Stimulated by a fondness for learning, 
and a determination to improve to the utmost of his power the 
faculties which the Creator had bestowed upon him, his clay taber- 
nacle is found incapable of sustaining the pressure of those exer- 
tions, and he is repeatedly brought to the brink of the grave ! Pre- 
sently we find him rallying again, breaking through the various 
obstacles with which he was encompassed, surmounting difficulties, 
gradually forcing his way in the paths of science and literature^ 
and in a great measure self-taught. In forming a proper estimate 
of Dr. Clarke's literary character, we ought never to lose sight of 
the rugged paths through which he had to climb to the temple of 
fame — the perseverance which he called into exercise — and the 
success which ultimately crowned his efforts. He was now about 
forty years of age, when he began to attract the notice of what 
may be termed his superiors in worldly circumstances ; and hb 
*' in whose hands it is to make great," in his Providence paved the 
way for bringing him prominently forward among his contempo- 
raries. 

At the meeting of Conference in 1805, Mr. Clarke was honoured 
with a second appointment to the London Circuit, and accordingly 
removed his family, books, &c. to the metropolis, where he now 
took up his residence, in the parsonage house adjoining the new 
chapel. City Road. Since his last station on this circuit, many 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 299 

new places of worship, belonging to the Wesleyan Methodists, had 
been erected in and about the metropolis, which rendered the 
preacher's walks still longer, and the ministerial labour no way 
diminished. At present, London is divided into six circuits, each 
having its own superintendent preacher ; but, at the time now re- 
ferred to, the case was otherwise, and Mr, Clarke was called to su- 
perintend the whole London societies and chapels. To facilitate 
this labour, which was far too great for one head, one pair of hands, 
and one pair of legs, his excellent wife proved indeed a helpmate 
to him. She kept his pecuniary accounts of every description ; 
and when strangers came to consult him, and thereby break in up- 
on his pursuits, she did what she could to prevent all unnecessary 
intrusion — and dismiss all general and unimportant enquiries, 
which must have been a great saving of time to him. 

In Manchester, Mr. Clarke's engagements had been quite suffi- 
cient to occupy him fully, but he had not been long settled in Lon- 
don, ere his time was so fully occupied, that it was almost impos- 
sible for him to devote much of it to his literary avocations. He 
had to preach twice every Lord's day, besides twice or thrice on 
other evenings in the week ; and, in addition to this, manage the 
spiritual and temporal concerns of the various societies, in conjunc- 
tion with his colleagues. These duties and engagements appear 
amply sufficient in themselves to occupy the time and attention of 
any ordinary man ; but the talents and industry of Mr. Clarke 
soon began to develope themselves in a far voider sphere of useful- 
ness. In fact, he was now only commencing his public career, 
and its engagements gradually increased upon him, and that, too, 
in such a way as scarcely to leave him the option of choice, as will 
be presently seen. 

The Conference meeting, in the year 1806, was held at Leeds, 
when Mr. Clarke was not only appointed to preach in the largest 
chapel in that large and populous town, whither persons flocked to 
hear him from a distance of twenty miles and more, but he was 
also appointed President of the Conference, and was compelled to 
take the chair, nolens volens ; for, in defiance of all his protestations 
against it, he was taken by main force, lifted out of his seat and 
placed upon the table! However, he got through the irksome 
office, and discharged the various duties combined with it, though, 



300 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

to use a Yorkshire phrase, he was " welly kill't" by it. The British 
and Foreign Bible Society about this time nominated Mr. Clarke 
a member of its committee, and he soon became a most efficient 
one : for his biblical knowledge and Oriental studies qualified him 
for rendering them important aid in reference to their translations 
of the sacred writings into several languages. The committee had 
projected the printing of a Bible in the Arabic language, and the 
subject at this time occupied its fixed attention. The printing was 
to be effected at Newcastle upon Tyne, under the supervision of 
the Rev. Mr. Usko, who got a specimen sheet set up, and impres- 
sions taken off, one of which being submitted to Mr. Clarke he 
examined it carefully, and, having done so, drew up a long letter 
which he addressed to Lord Teignmouth, President of the British 
and Foreign Bible Society, in which he gave his opinion of the 
type, which he pronounced very beautiful — the paper and ink good, 
and the typographical execution very respectable. He objected, 
however, to the form, which was in quarto, assigning his reasons 
for thinking that it should either be exchanged for an octavo page, 
or else printed in columns — Ke should also prefer a large type as 
more in character with Arabic works in general. But what he 
most of all objected to, was its being printed without the vowel 
points, and his reasons for this were submitted at considerable 
length. His letter thus concludes : — 

" I believe your lordship is anxious, as also are the committee, 
that an edition of the Arabic Scriptures should be procured with- 
out delay. It seems that the Rt. Hon. the Lord Bishop of Dur- 
ham,* that incessant patron of learning and of learned men, has 
taken the lead in this business; I hope he has not proceeded far 
in his edition, and that it is still capable of receiving those im- 
provements which may most effectually accomplish his lordship's 
benevolent design. I would, therefore, propose to you, my lord, 
that the British and Foreign Bible Society should engage to take 
so many copies (say one, or two, or more thousands) the whole 
expence of which they should defray, on condition that the Bible 
be printed with points throuffhout, or at least in those places where 
the sense may be liable to be misunderstood. If the points be cast 



* Barrington, who died in 1825, at the advanced age of ninety! 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE. LL. D., F. A. S. 301 

on a fine pearl body, they will add a little more than one half to 
the quantity of letter press, and the present types, though smaller 
than might be wished, will look much better, and the lines be more 
distinct, when the vowels are added. As the letter is ready, and 
other typographical arrangements made at Newcastle, there need 
be no further delay than merely what may be requisite to procure 
the points. The expence, it is true, of composing, &c. will be con- 
siderably greater than it would be on the plan of the specimen ; 
but what is this, when the question relates to the diffusion of the 
Word of God among many millions of deluded people ! A pure 
edition of the Scriptures in Arabic is still a desideratum in biblical 
literature : the time, I hope, is at hand when it will cease to be so. 
Under the auspices and direction of your lordship, and the British 
and Foreign Bible Society, I am led confidently to expect an edi- 
tion of the Arabic Bible which shall be worthy of the subject, a 
credit to your lordship and the society, and an honour to the 
British nation, &c. &c. 

" Adam Clarke." 

The above letter was handed by Lord Teignmouth to the Orien- 
tal Sub- Committee, by whom it was read at the New London 
Tavern, January 21st, 1807, and a resolution passed that it be 
entered on the minutes, which led Mr. Clarke to draw up a second 
letter on the same subject, addressed to the committee. In this 
letter, he tells them, that being prevented by indisposition from 
having the pleasure of meeting with the Oriental Committee that 
morning, he thought it necessary to state upon paper what he should 
have said had he been present" — and then takes a comprehensive 
view of the subject in all its bearings, specifying the various editions 
of the whole or parts of the Holy Scriptures that had been published 
in Arabic since the middle of the 16th century, and suggests such 
hints for completing the undertaking as had occurred to him on 
mature reflection. 

The letter was very courteously received, entered upon their 
minutes, and thanks voted him for the very important commu- 
nication. 

While this subject is before us, it would be unjust to the memory 



302 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

of Mr. Clarke to withold from the reader what is stated in reference 
to the subject, by the Rev. John Owen, in his "History of the first 
ten years of the British and Foreign Bible Society." 

" The difficulties of this work," says Mr. Owen, "consisted also 
in the adoption or rejection of the text to be followed. The text 
of the Polyglott in professor Carlyle's edition, and which was by 
many warmly espoused, both Mr. Usko and Mr. Adam Clarke 
pronounced to be incorrect ; and which has since been declared to 
be, by the late pious, learned, and enterprising Martyn, defective 
both in printing and elegance." But not only to obtain this Arabic 
Bible, did Mr. Clarke thus labour — in Mr. Owen's History, just 
quoted, is the following intimation. 

" To translate the Scriptures into the Calmuc Dialect now be- 
came a most desirable object, and though attended with many 
difficulties, yet as these were progressively removed, the prospect 
opened of being able to circulate the Scriptures among a population 
extending from the banks of the Wolga to the regions of Thibet 
and China. To obtain this Tartar New Testament, became a sub- 
ject of deep and lively interest : the preparation of types was dili- 
gently followed up by the Rev. Adam Clarke, to whose learned 
and judicious superintendence this concern had been implicitly 
confided. A scale of types, constructed by himself, and executed 
with singular beauty, was submitted to the consideration of the 
Committee, and a fount was cast, agreeably to the model recom- 
mended by Mr. Clarke, and sanctioned by the approbation of the 
President, Lord Teignmouth, and other competent judges of Orien- 
tal literature." 

This scale of types, constructed by Mr. Clarke, was a work of 
no little labour, nor of trifling consequence ; on the contrary it 
took up much of his time, and required a considerable knowledge, 
with a nicety of typographical calculation, not easily appreciated 
by persons unacquainted with the difficulties of such an under- 
taking, especially in a foreign language. Not only in these higher 
subjects of inquiry did Mr. Clarke labour, but also in all the details 
of the interests of a Society, which was to be, in the hands of Pro- 
vidence, the medium of conveying the word of God, without note or 
comment to every language and people and tongue under heaven. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. U., F. A. S. 303 

In rendering efficient aid as a member of the Committee, he was for 
ten years seldom absent from his post. The following extract 
from Mr. Owen's History serves to shew in what estimation the 
labours of Mr. Clarke were held, and how disinterestedly he could 
bestow them. " As the assistance, of Mr. Clarke in the Arabic 
business has been referred to, it appears proper to state, that, with 
the expression of their thanks for this and other eminent services 
which had cost him no ordinary sacrifice both of time and labour, 
the Committee requested permission to present him with fifty pounds, 
an offering which that learned and public spirited individual respect- 
fully but peremptorily declined to accept. — Gratuitous exertions in 
the cause of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and refusals to 
accept pecuniary returns, have abounded so greatly in every period 
of its history, that it is not intended, nor would it indeed be practi- 
cable to specify the occasions in which they have been made. Mr. 
Adam Clarke is, however, not to be classed with ordinary benefac- 
tors ; and the circumstance has been mentioned principally with a 
view of introducing his reply to the Committee's address on this 
subject : a document which the author of this history considers as 
too important to be sacrificed to the modesty of living merit." 

To Messrs Reyner and Mills. 

*' Gentlemen : — With great respect and gratitude, I return the 
Fift]/ Pounds which have been kindly sent me by the Committee 
of the British and Foreign Bible Society. 

" To no principle from whence my services proceeded, to no 
feeling of my heart, can I reconcile the acceptance of the Society's 
bounty. What I have done was for the sake of God and His truth ; 
and I feel myself greatly honoured in having a part in this blessed 
work, and only regret that I have but a short time to devote to so 
useful an employment. To have in any measure deserved the re- 
spectful attention with which my feeble services have been honoured 
by the Committee, is a subject of sufficient gratification to my 
mind, and brings with it the amplest remuneration. 

" God forbid that I should receive any of the Society's funds ; 
let this money, therefore, return to its source ; and if be the instru- 
ment cf carrying but one additional Bible to any place, or family 



4 



304 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS 



previously destitute of the words of eternal life, how much reason 
shall I have to thank God that it never became part of my 
property ! 

" Have the goodness to assure the Committee of my perfect 
readiness, whether present or absent, to promote, as far as my time 
and abilities will permit, the great objects of this most benevolent 
association, which, like the Apocalyptic angel, is flying through the 
midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach to every 
nation and kindred and people and tongue. 

" Adam Clarke." 

City Road June 20th 1807. 

The conduct of Mr. Clarke, throughout the whole of this affair, is 
unquestionably most honourable to his memory and sets his cha- 
racter above all praise. He exerted himself to bring about a trans- 
lation of the Holy Scriptures into the Tartaric and Arabic lan- 
guages and into the modern Greek also ; and he sought to obtain 
the printing of a Syriac New Testament. The time, however, was 
fast approaching, when, according to the rules and regulations of 
the Methodist Connection, he was to be removed from the Metro- 
politan circuit; and as many of the projected versions of an Orien- 
tal cast, were still, as it were, in an embryo state, it was of great 
importance to the Bible Society to retain his assistance in maturing 
and perfecting them. The Committee, therefore, came to the deter- 
mination of petitioning Conference to suspend the rule of removal, 
in the case of Mr. Clarke, so as to allow him to remain on the 
London Circuit. This subject will be best explained by submit- 
ting to the reader the following " Extract from the Minutes of the 
Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society, dated, 15th 
June, 1807." 

" The Committee having learnt, with great regret, that they are 
likely soon to be deprived of the valuable assistance of the Rev. 
Adam Clarke, in executing various parts of their foreign transla- 
tions, by his removal from London, Unanimously resolve, That a 
respectful application be made to the Conference of the Religious 
Society with which he is immediately connected, stating the inter- 
ruption which must be occasioned to such parts of the Society's 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL.D., F. A. S. S05 



business, should Mr. Clarke be removed, and earnestly requesting 

that he may be permitted to continue his labours among them. 

" Signed, by order of the Committee. 

John Owen, ) 

> Secretaries. 



Joseph Hughes, 



To this Resolution of the Committee was subjoined the follow- 
ing letter to the Ministers assembled in Conference. 

" Rev. Sirs, — In obedience to the instructions of the Committee 
of the British and Foreign Bible Society, we transmit to you a copy 
of the Resolution which will be found enclosed. The Committee 
are very far from presuming to interfere with the peculiar regula- 
tions of any Society of Christians, and nothing would have induced 
them to make the application contained in the Resolution, but a 
solemn conviction, in which they unanimously concurred, that the 
object of it was essential to the successful execution of many plans, 
now under consideration, for supplying Mahomedan and Pagan na- 
tions with the Holy Scriptures. Mr. Clarke has already rendered 
such and so many services to the British and Foreign Bible Society, 
that the Committee may scarcely appear justified in requesting a 
continuance of them, but the fact is, that services of that description 
which Mr. Clarke has rendered are indispensable to the successful 
prosecution of the Society's plan ; and they know not any man, Mr. 
Clarke excepted, from whom they could expect to receive them. 

" The Committee are sensible that the talents, erudition, and zeal 
of Mr. Clarke may be employed with great promise of usefulness in 
any part of the United Kingdom ; but they submit to you, reve- 
rend Sirs, whether any sphere of usefulness could be found so 
worthy to engage the labours of Mr. Clarke, or so likely, under 
God, to extend and perpetuate their efforts, as that which is now 
afforded to him by his connection with the British and Foreign 
Bible Society. 

" In requesting, therefore, reverend Sirs, which they unanimously 
and earnestly do, that Mr. Clarke may not, under present circum- 
stances, be removed from London, the Committee trust that they 
shall be understood to have no other object in view than that which 

2 R 



306 MEMOIRS OF THE UFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



the Conference will appreciate as well as themselves, the employ- 
ment of Mr. Clarke's qualifications in such a manner as may pro- 
mote, most extensively and permanently, the interests of Chritianity. 
" Signed, " John Owen, 7 

"Joseph Hughes. 1®""='"''^™'- 

Mr. Clarke's connection with the Eclectic Review has been al- 
ready mentioned. The editorship of that journal, in 1806, had 
lapsed into the hands of Mr. Daniel Parken, a barrister, a young 
man of great natural talents, and of extensive intellectual attain- 
ments, but who was unexpectedly cut off in the midst of his days, 
in consequence of an injury which he sustained, through a fall from 
his gig, as he was going one of his circuits. Early in the year I8O6 
he applied to Mr. Clarke to furnish an article on Holmes s Septuagint, 
for that periodical, with which he complied. On the 15th of May, 
Mr. Parken addressed a letter of thanks to him, in which he says — 
" Your Review of Holmes's Septuagint is performed, not only to 
my own satisfaction, but to the entire approbation of all who have 
seen it, and to the credit of the Review itself." This review of 
" Holmes" also obtained the commendation of Professor Bentley, of 
King's College, Aberdeen, who thus wrote to Mr. Clarke under date 
of the 20th March : 

" Thus far had I proceeded in my letter, when I had the pleasure 
of receiving the Eclectic Review for March : my first object was to 
read the performance of my friend, which is, I must say, more con- 
formable to my ideas of what a Review should be, than is generally 
to be met with in the periodical publications of the present day : it 
is such a complete account and analysis of the work, as will enable 
a person to form a just opinion of it. There is one observation which 
struck me on its perusal — it is this : the article contains many par- 
ticulars of additional information more than Holmes has given ; and 
these you have so intermingled with those drawn from Holmes, that 
the generality of readers will not perceive to whom they are indebted 
for them. The opposite of this is, I believe, the usual practice of 
Reviewers : they often display information as their own, which they 
owe altogether to their author, whom they are perhaps abusing : and 
thus make it more their object to seem knowing themselves, than 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 307 

even to give a proper and just account of the Author, whose work 
they are professing to review.' 

In the course of the summer of 1806, Mr. Clarke was prevailed 
upon to make one of a family party who took a journey into Wilt- 
shire, partly to visit Mrs. Clarke's mother, and Mr. Clarke's youngest 
daughter then at Trowbridge. The particulars of this journey he 
detailed, from time to time, in a series of letters addressed to his 
second son, Theodoret ; and to the younger branches of the family 
they must have proved both amusing and instructive. They are 
written in the author's best style, and his observations on the country 
through which they passed, the scenery and antiquities which came 
in their way, the noblemen's seats they had an opportunity of visit- 
ing, with various other matters introduced, rendered them exceed- 
ingly interesting, but they are too copious to be here inserted. In 
the outset of the first letter he tells his son, that " as Mr. Butter- 
worth had come out for the sake of his health, and wished me to im- 
prove mine, he determined to make a pretty wide circuit through 
the most remarkable places in Wiltshire. He accordingly hired two 
post carriagee; and on Thursday morning Mr. and Mrs. Butter- 
worth, Mrs Bishop, and your cousin Henrietta Pond got into one 
of them, and your mother, cousin Martin, your sister Mary Ann, 
and myself into the other, and off we set for Devizes, ten miles, 
where we dined with your mother's relative Mrs. Locke." From 
thence they proceeded to Stone- Henge a distance of sixteen miles, 
chiefly over Salisbury Plain. I suppose we travelled twenty 
miles this day (says Mr. Clarke) without meeting with a single 
house except a turnpike gate ; but the roads were all good, and the 
views on this vastly extended plain often very fine." 

His observations on the shepherds, with their immense droves of 
sheep, each attended by his dog, and furnished with his crook and 
scrip, are pleasing, but must not be dwelt upon. Stone-Henge has 
not often been better described than in the following extract. " The 
whole of this stupendous work is situated on an open plain, many 
miles from any kind of dwelling, and is composed of huge stones, in 
different circles, placed perpendicularly at a few feet distance from 
each other, with one great stone laid on the top of the two others ; 
but many of the flat stones have fallen off and several of the up- 



808 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

right ones become prostrate. Originally, I think, it was composed 
of three circles, included within each other. I took some pains to 
ascertain the number of the stones. The outward circle, which is 
the most entire, contains thirty-three vast stones ; the second twenty- 
four, some large, and some small ; and the third twenty-six. 

" To give you some idea of their size, I measured one of them which 
felldown in the thaw of Christmas 1802, and found the average length 
to be twenty-one feet, breadth seven feet, and thickness three feet ; 
but this stone was by no means the largest, the greatest are those 
which are perpendicular, to whose top I had no possibility of ascend- 
ing. We spent upwards of an hour among these stones, which in- 
deed bear every mark of the most remote antiquity, and are well 
calculated to inspire an attentive observer with sentiments of deep 
veneration and respect. — Stone-Henge was doubtless a place conse- 
crated to the purposes of religious worship. I have no doubt that 
. the Power or Strength of the Divine Nature (or Deity) was the at- 
tribute principally contemplated by our rude ancestors, and indeed 
by all the primitive inhabitants of the earth. Hence colossal sta- 
tues, immense rocks, and massive temples were dedicated to this 
power or strength, which, at last, the licentious imagination of man 
personified, and adored in a monstrous human form under the name 
of Hercules, among the Greeks and Romans, Baal amongst the Ca- 
naanites, Bramah amongst the ancient Hindoos, and Tuisco, &c. 
among our Celtic and Teutonic ancestors : and hence every strong 
man was supposed to be the principal favourite of the deity, and to 
be under the peculiar direction of this strength or power. It was this 
which gave rise to the histories of Hercules, Theseus, Bellerophon, 
Rustum, and the giants of different countries. I suppose, therefore, 
that these stupendous monuments of huge rocks, placed in a certain 
artificial manner, which are found not only here, but in every na- 
tion of the world, were the temples dedicated to the god of strength 
by the primitive inhabitants of the earth ; and by which, while be- 
holding his stupendous operations in the kingdom of nature, they 
expressed at once their belief in His Being and their veneration of 
His Power." 

Mr. Clarke and his friends, after satisfying their curiosity about 
Stone-Henge, determined to visit Wilton House, the residence of 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



S09 



the Earl of Pembroke, taking Old Sarum and Salisbury Cathedral 
in their way. The finest collection of coins and medals in any 
private possession in Europe are preserved at Wilton House — and 
many of the earliest and finest pieces of Grecian and Roman sculp- 
ture adorn that splendid mansion. The grounds are described to 
be both elegant and grand ; — plantations, vistas, temples, bridges, 
&c. form a delightful piece of romantic and artificial scenery, abound- 
ing with droves of pheasants and partridges, so tame as almost to 
come and eat out of a stranger's hand — and scores of these lovely 
fowls within a few feet of the visiting party. " Having thus spent 
our time," says Mr. Clarke, " we left this interesting place, to which, 
for its antiquity-sake, I feel my heart warmly attached, and re- 
turned to our inn, where we partook of a most comfortable dinner. 
We were all as hungry as Greenland bears, and devoured our din- 
ner like half-starved hounds. I have seldom needed a meal so 
much, and have not often been more thankful to God for one." 

On leaving Wilton the party set off for Wardour Castle, the 
seat of the Earl of Arundel, a Catholic Nobleman. Here the 
paintings were numerous and exquisitely fine — far beyond those of 
the Earl of Pembroke. But that which above all others attracted 
Mr. Clarke's notice, was a painting of the Saviour, after death, by 
Spagnioletti : it struck him with both wonder and awe ! He is 
represented as just taken down from the cross — the countenance 
indescribably expressive of death, and yet highly dignified, fully 
verifying the words, ' No man taketh my life from me — I lay down 
my life for the sheep, &c.' — The appearance of his hands was very 
striking : you could plainly see the blood congealed in the fingers, 
when, in its last transmission from the heart, it had reached the ex- 
tremities ; but the vis vitas had departed just as the veins were in 
the act of receiving it from the arteries to return it to the heart. 
The Virgin was kneeling by his side, and with her hands clasped 
and her eyes lifted up to heaven, in all the silent agony of grief; 
and yet the most perfect and sublime resignation to the will ol 
God was strongly marked in every feature. Another figure in 
this painting I could scarcely look at without weeping : it was 
Mary Magdalene, kneeling down and kissing the wound made by 
the nail in tb^^ sole of our Lord's foot. The whole piece was ex« 



310 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

ceedingly alfecting, and almost incapacitated me from receiving 
any pleasing sensations from the great variety of beautiful land- 
scapes, buildings, ruins, &c. which appear in vast numbers in other 
])arts of this elegant mansion." 

Quitting Wardour Castle on the following morning, Mr. Clarke 
and his friends set out for Fonthill, the well known residence of 
William Beckford, Esq. — a beautiful mansion, delightfully situated 
■ — all the cii'cumjacent hills and dales being skirted with woods, 
and before the house a large and beautiful lake spread itself, covered 
with wild and tame fowl in abundance. " Of the house itself says 
Mr. Clarke, I shall say but little ; it did not please me. Certainly, 
1 never saw any place so elegant by many degrees : gold, silver, 
ivory, corals, agates, porphyry j the finest marble, cedar, ebony, 
&c, met the eye every where. Invention had been tortured to find 
out places and sufiiciently varied forms to permit wealth, elegance, 
and luxury to pour out and arrange their vast profusion of what 
might be termed superb, gay, garish, and gaudy. In ancient times 
it would have been considered rather as the temple oi Plutus, or of 
Voluptuousness, than the residence of any human being. A vast 
number of the utensils were not only of silver in the finest forms, 
but also of massive gold : dishes, spoons, and very large candlesticks 
were of this last-mentioned metal. Even the very backs and seats 
of the chairs were all gilt over ; and the beds and bed-room furni- 
ture, superb and costly beyond all you can imagine. We were 
shewn some cabinets, the making of which alone cost one thousand 
five hundred pounds, and others one thousand seven hundred pounds. 
The pictures were many, and very fine — some of them by the 
first masters in Italy, Holland, and France. We were shewn the 
picture of a little laughing boy, about fifteen inches by twelve, 
which cost two thousand pounds — and two landscapes, I think by 
Claude Lorraine, which cost seven thousand guineas." 

The only other gentleman's seat which our travellers visited 
during this excursion was that of Sir Richard Hoare, Bart, at 
Stourton, which met their every wish and gratified their most ex- 
tensive desires. " To describe it," says Mr. Clarke, is altogether 
out of my power. The situation of the house, the extensive grounds, 
the astonishing variety of wood and water, hill and dale, lawn. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 311 



vista, foliage, temples, grottoes, &c. are grand, elegant, and noble, 
beyond any thing I had ever met with. Imagination itself can 
scarcely conceive any thing more beautiful or picturesque than 
what is here exhibited, and apparently with little art, in this abode, 
and these extensive and variegated grounds belonging to the intel- 
ligent and worthy proprietor : to a heathen, the place and its en- 
virons would appear to be the peculiar residence of the goddess of 
Nature. — What I saw not in any of the other places, I met with here 
— a library of good books, not very extensive, but systematically 
arranged : the room in which they are contained is lofty and ele- 
gant, and has a very superb painted window, the classical subject 
of which is, the ancient philosophers instructing their pupils, and 
perfectly appropriate to the place." The grounds, the grottoes, the 
Pantheon, the Temple of the Sun, the Hermit's House, &c. furnish 
matter of copious detail for Mr. Clarke's pen or pencil, but enough 
has been already extracted to whet the reader s curiosity. 

Invigorated by this rural excursion, Mr. Clarke returned to 
London and resumed his studies and employments. His literary 
character had by this time brought him into public notice ; and 
the University of Aberdeen, at the suggestion of the celebrated 
Professor Porson, with whom he had formed an intimacy, conferred 
on him the honorary degree of Master of Arts, intimation of which 
was communicated to him, by his friend Professor Bentley, in the 
following terms. 

" King's College, Aberdeen, Jan. 31, 1807. 
" My Dear Friend, 
" I have the pleasure to announce to you, that the University 
and the King's College, Aberdeen, have this day conferred the 
degree of Master of Arts on Mr. Adam Clarke, member of the 
Philological Society of Manchester, and author of several literary 
works of merit. Mr. Scott is the promoter in this faculty, and I 
was obliged to him for seconding me in my proposal. Let me 
assure you I look not on this as the measure of your merit, but it 
may be considered as a step ; and while I live I shall not cease to 
wish, as far as it may be in my power, and endeavour to promote 
your due honour and fame. " James Bentley." 



312 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



Professor Bentley's anticipation was realized in the spring of the 
following year : Mr. Clarke had the honour of being presented 
with a diploma of LL. D. from the same quarter, and it was 
intimated to him in the following terms, by the same friendly hand. 

" King's College, Aberdeen, March 3, 1808. 
" My Dear Sir, 

" I have the pleasure to inform you that the University has this 
day given another proof of its estimation of your merit, by unani- 
mously voting to you the highest designation of its gift, that of 
LL. D. Permit me to add my sincere congratulations on the 
occasion, and to wish that you may long live to enjoy the rewards 
and fruits of your useful and meritorious labom's. 

" You are already as much possessed of the degree as it is possi- 
ble to be, but I shall soon have the honour to transmit to you the 
demonstration of it in the Sign Manual of all the Members of the 
Senatus Academicus, 

" With warmest regard, yours, 

" James Bentley." 

To Adam Clarke, LL. D." 

Mr. Clarke acknowledged this new literary honour in a letter to 
Dr. Alex. Dauney, J. C. P. of the same college, of which here 
follows a copy : — 

" Dear Sir, " March 9th, 1808. 

** It was not till yesterday that I had any intimation of the 
honour done me by your learned University ; for, though I was 
favoured with a letter last week from Mr. Professor Bentley, he did 
not drop the slightest hint that such a design was even on foot. 
This circumstance, however, shews the act of your University in a 
still more honourable light, and that honour is considerably en- 
hanced, not only by the great respectability of the Promoter, but 
by the manner in which I am informed he conducted the whole 
business. 

" You will still, my dear sir, lay me under greater obligation to 
yourself, by receiving the expressions of my gratitude for your 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



313 



kindness, and by making similar acknowledgments, as acceptable 
as possible to your learned university. 

" To add any thing to the respectability of King's College, 
though out of my power, will, notwithstanding, be an object of my 
sincerest desire ; and were even other motives wanting, this would 
induce me to pay such respect to every part of my moral and 
literary conduct, that if no act of mine could honour, none should 
discredit a university which has been the Alma Mater of some of 
the first characters in the republic of letters. 

" I am, &c. Adam Clarke." 

The two Diplomas of M. A. and LI-. D. were sent to Mr. Clarke 
in the most honourable and flattering manner, the college refusing 
to accept even the customary clerks' fees given on such occasions. 

SECTION XIV. 

Some Account of Dr. Clarhes Connection with His Majesty s Com- 
missioners on the Public Records of the Kingdom, a.d. 1808 — 
1818. 

The eminent services which Dr. Clarke had recently rendered to 
the cause of learning and science, partly by means of his various 
publications, and partly by the assistance he had rendered to the 
British and Foreign Bible Society, then in its infancy and surround- 
ed with difficulties, contributed to raise him into enviable notice, 
and at length to fix the eye of government upon him. A Com- 
mission had been issued by parliament in the year 1800, and re- 
ceived the King's Sign Manual, the object of which was to appoint 
a Select Committee, whose business it should be to collect, for the 
benefit of the public service, the important Records and papers 
contained in many of the public offices and repositories, with a 
view to methodizing them, and that certain of the more ancient 
and valuable of them should be printed as a Continuation of 
Rymers Foedera, and Supplement to that great work. 
The Board of Commissioners entrusted with the execution of this 

2S 



314 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

great national undertaking, consisted of the following high charac- 
ters, viz. The Speaker of the House of Commons (Mr. Abbot, 
afterwards Lord Colchester)— The Right Hon. Lords Frederick 
Campbell — Redesdale ■— Silvester, Lord Glenbervie — Bishop of 
Bangor— Sir William Grant, Master of the Rolls— The Lord 
Advocate of Scotland (Archibald Colquhoun) and the Right Hon. 
Charles Bathurst. Seven years had elapsed since this Honourable 
Board was formed, and inquiry made for individuals competent 
to execute the task, but hitherto all in vain, and scarcely a step was 
taken in the undertaking, when their attention was directed to the 
subject of this Memoir. -How he became connected with these 
commissioners, is thus related by himself. 

" Some time in February, 1808, I learned that 1 had been re- 
commended to His Majesty's Commissioners of the Public Records 
of the kingdom, by the Right Honourable Charles Abbot, Speaker 
of the House of Commons, and one of the Commissioners, to whom 
I was known only by some of my writings on Bibliography, as a 
fit person to undertake the department of collecting and arranging 
those State Papers which might serve to complete and continue 
that collection of State Papers generally called ' Rymers Foedera.' 
This department had lain unoccupied from the date of the commis- 
sion, now more than seven years, no person being found that would 
undertake it, and was thought to be sufficiently qualified to be 
trusted with that department ; though the completion and con- 
tinuance of that work, was one of the first measures proposed to be 
executed under the commission." 

Dr. Clarke then relates the particulars of an interview which he 
had with John Caley, Esq., Secretary to the commission, who was 
appointed to see him, and to ascertain whether he would be 
willing to undertake a work in which his Majesty's government 
would wish to employ him, but without giving him any clue as to 
its nature. Dr. Clarke answered with great discretion, that Jie could 
give no decided reply until he knew whether ho possessed the requi- 
site qualifications for the work. Mr. Caley rejoined, " Sir, those 
who have sent me, have no doubt of your qualifications. The 
work is confidential : but I can say no more at present than 
that it requires the habits of a Christian, a scholar, and a gentle- 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 315 



man." A. C Why, Sir, I may very reasonably doubt, whether I 
liave any of these qualifications in an adequate degree : All I can 
say is, if there be any way in which, in addition to my present 
sacred duties, I can serve my king and my country, it must be my 
duty to embrace it ; but as I know not the nature of the work, 
nor the abilities and time it may require, I cannot give any par- 
ticular answer." 

A few days afterwards Mr. Clarke received a note from Mr. Caley 
inviting him to call upon him at his house, which he did, and was 
then particularly informed what the work was. " I was struck 
with surprise," says Dr. Clarke, " and endeavoured to excuse myself 
on the grounds of general unfitness — that my studies had never led 
me into the line of jurisprudential or diplomatic examinations, and 
that I could not think of undertaking any work of the kind j and 
that real unfitness, not unwillingness, must be considered as my 
excuse." At this the Secretary smiled, and said, Mr. Clarke you 
will have the goodness to try, and in the mean time draw up a 
paper which his Majesty's Commissioners require, and I am always 
ready to give you any directions and assistance in my power." 

Mr. Clarke had now to submit the matter to his brethren in the 
ministry, the Committee of Preachers, at the City Road, entreat- 
ing their advice. Some said, " It will prevent you going on in the 
work of the ministry :" — others said " Its a trick of the devil to 
prevent your usefulness ;" others, " It may rather be a call of 
Divine Providence to greater usefulness than formerly. And, see- 
ing you compromise nothing by it, and may still preach, as usual, 
accept it, in God's name." Others said, " if Mr. Wesley were alive 
he would consider it a call of God to you ; and so close with it, 
without hesitation." 

Such were the circumstances under which Mr. Clarke set about 
the work, and drew up, what was called An Essay on Rymer's 
Foedera, &c." which was soon laid before the Commissioners, and 
received their unqualified approbation. They immediately ap- 
pointed him a sub-commissioner, and assigned him the department 
of the collecting the State Papers already referred to, with authority 
to get such assistants as were qualified for the work, and in whom 
he could confide. 



316 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

But the department of the Fcedera was not the only work which 
claimed his attention during the time he acted under the Commis- 
sion. He had to methodize and arrange the collections of persons 
who were employed in other departments ; and the state of the tran- 
scripts, which were sometimes on bad paper, and generally in a 
careless hand, often occasioned him much perplexity and trouble. 
When such were sent in to the Commissioners, out of which they 
could make nothing, without such a consumption of time as would 
ill-comport with their office, the recommendation of Lords Colches- 
ter and Glenbervie used to conclude the business, — Let them be 
sent to Dr. Clarke, he will arrange and describe them." 

Dr. Clarke was also employed to make general seaixhes through 
all the records of the nation, relative to the Licejitia Regis, neces- 
saiy for the currency of Papal Bulls, especially such as affected the 
King's prerogative, or the privileges or safety of the nation. The 
result of this laborious search was a mass of evidence relative to the 
continual exertions of the Papal See to seize on all the power, se- 
cular as w^ell as ecclesiastical, of the British Empire, and to make 
the parliament its tool and the king its deputy. This mass of evi- 
dence, with what Lord Colchester was pleased to denominate. Dr. 
Clarke's " powerful observations" on it, was delivered into his Lord- 
ship's hands, who appears to have been the life and soul of the 
Record Commission. 

But though Dr. Clarke allowed himself to be hooked into this 
undertaking, when he had an opportunity of taking a cl6ser inspec- 
tion of its nature, extent, and difficulties, his heart failed him at the 
contemplation of such an Herculean task. In a letter to Mr. Caley, 
the Secretary, he thus expresses himself : " Though I seldom feel 
disposed to shrink from mere labour, however arduous : yet I must 
own this now allotted me, seems so peculiarly difficult and delicate, 
tliat I feel unwilling even to encounter it. I wall, however, with 
God's help, endeavour to fill up the synopsis, and take at least 
such steps towards the other parts of the work, as my time and cir- 
cumstances will permit. When I have viewed it in all its beaiings, 
I shall be the better able to judge, whether my state of health will 
justify my wishes to accomplish the important task in such a way 
as will be no discredit to the right honourable projector. And un^ 



or THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



317 



less this appear reasonably plain, no earthly consideration shall 
induce me to accept a pledge, which I may find it difficult to 
restore." 

Of the difficulties which he had to encounter, some estimate may 
be formed from the fact, that, to do any thing to effect, he must ex- 
amine sixty folio volumes, with numerous collateral evidence — to 
examine the different Public Offices, in order to ascertain what dif- 
ferent articles they afforded, towards supplying the deficiencies of 
Rymer and his associates — and make a selection of such Records as 
it might be expedient to print, under the authority of parliament, 
either as a supplement or continuation of that work. 

On the recommendation of Dr. Clarke, the Commissioners 
resolved to begin the work with the Norman Conquest, A. d. 1066, 
instead of the first year of Henry I., and to bring it down to the 
accession of George III. The plan thus arranged, the following 
public offices were to be diligently explored for documents ; — the 
Tower of London — the Chapter House, Westminster — the Archives 
of the Dean and Chapter, ditto — the British Museum — the State 
Paper Office — the Bodleian Library, Oxford — ^^the University of 
Cambridge — the Roll's Chapel — Library of the Dean and Chapter 
of Durham Cathedral, and the Library of the Bishop's Auditor's 
Office — the Red Book of the Exchequer, Westminister — Herald's 
College, London — Trinity College, Dublin — Archives of various 
Cathedrals, and some private collections. 

The following extract from a letter of Dr. Clarke's to the Right 
Honourable the Speaker, written some time after he had embarked 
in the undertaking, shows with how much diffidence he engagied 
in the arduous undertaking, and how tremblingly alive he was to 
its vast importance : — 

" Should \ go to Ireland [in quest of the Ancient Irish 
Records] I will take care that the work at home be left in a state 
of progression ; for I wish to exert myself to the utmost, to provide 
materials to supply all deficiencies in the Foedera, from the 
Norman Conquest, to the death of King John : further than this I 
dare not at present engage, lest both my health and abilities should 
be found inadequate to the task with which I am honoured. I 
deeply feel the responsibility of my situation. I am to labour, not 



318 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

only for my own credit, that is a feather in the business, but for 
the honour of the Record Commission, and for that of the Nation. 
By long studies, disadvantageous! y circumstanced, &c. and by the 
very severe duties of my office, which I have unremittingly filled 
up for twenty-eight years ; I am, at the age of forty-six, consider- 
ably w^orn down, and cannot bear without present injury, even one 
half of that fatigue which I formerly passed through without feel- 
ing the burden. It is on this ground alone that I beg leave, sir, to 
say, that though I shall pursue my present task with as much zeal 
and diligence as possible ; yet if any proper person offer himself 
for this important work, on whose fitness and strength dependance 
may be reasonably placed, I hope the Right Honourable the 
Commissioners will forget me in the business, and readily employ 
that adequate person. Such an one, I should suppose, might be 
readily found ; and hoping, for the sake of the service, that he may 
soon appear, I shall till then consider myself his locum tenens, and 
then as cheerfully give place, with ' Mc coestus artemque repono' " 

Notwithstanding his fears, injured health, &c. Dr. Clarke per- 
severed in his laborious employ with unremitting diligence ; fre- 
quently reporting progress to his Majesty's Commissioners; and 
his reports were constantly sent in to be read before the board. 
Independent of the fatigue and labour, both mental and corporeal, 
which Dr. Clarke's engagements now exacted from him, he had 
various others to encounter, of which the following may serve as a 
specimen. In one of his letters to Lord Colchester, he says, " I 
find a great inconvenience, from the shortness of the hours, during 
which there is access to the reading-room of the British Museum, 
i. e. from ten to four. My chief time for study is from five in the 
morning till ten ; and after five in the evening. All the interme- 
diate time is occupied with a multitude of concerns, in attending to 
which, I lie at the mercy of a hundred calls — all connected indeed 
with the duties of my office, but perfectly inconsistent with any 
study to which close application and consecutive thinking are 
requisite. If, however, it be inconsistent with the rules of the 
British Museum, to permit the temporary removal of any MSS. on 
my account, I shall be obliged to request some other apartment 
than the reading-room, as my assistant is often obliged to consult 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



319 



me at the table, and we cannot verify any of our transcripts with 
the original, without reading aloud, which, of course, is quite in- 
consistent with that general silence which should be observed 
where so many gentlemen are employed on different branches of 
study." The result of this was, that the Committee of the British 
Museum, took the subject into immediate consideration, and 
granted the privilege he solicited. 

But though this difficulty was surmounted, others of a different 
kind assailed him, which were still more distressing. In a letter 
which he addressed to Mr. Caley, at the close of the year 1808, the 
first year of his connection with the Record Commission, after 
enumerating a long list of difficulties, which had impeded his 
progress, Dr Clarke thus sums up the whole : — And in addition 
to all this I am obliged to say, that after having employed a young 
man of considerable learning and abilities, (Mr. Jannion,) and 
inducted him into every branch of the work, and had reason to 
expect much from his perseverance ; his fine classical taste was so 
mortified with the barbarous documents he was obliged to copy ; 
and the work itself afforded so little entertainment to his genius 
and thirst for learning, that, almost broken-hearted he earnestly 
entreated me to give him his dismission." 

Dr. Clarke, after this, tried some others, but found them wholly 
unfit. At length he met with Dr. Steinhauer, who appeared well 
qualified for the work ; he was a gentleman in whom confidence 
could be reposed, and if his health permitted, promised to be an 
acquisition to the service. But here again. Dr. Clarke was met by 
disappointment ; for the health of Dr. Steinhauer presently failed, 
owing to the severe studies of his youth, and the unfortunate times 
on which he had fallen. The life of this amiable man fell beneath the 
malignant influence of the war he had to wage with the apparently 
adverse star of his fortune ; and the difficulties he encountered in 
ascending the steep of Fame's proud temple — caused his mind, 
body, and spirit, to faint at the entrance of that gate, which, had 
he sooner reached, might have saved him from a premature grave, 
and the Commission have been longer favoured with the services, 
learning, diligence, and zeal of this worthy man, who was carried 
off by a dropsy in the chest, in 1809. He was succeeded by Mr. 



S^O MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

F. H. Holbrooke, who continued as Dr. Clarke's assistant, as long 
as he himself remained under the Commission. 

In the Essay which Dr. Clarke drew up at the outset of the 
business, and at the request of the honourable the Board of Com- 
missioners, he gives the following concise account of the circum- 
stances which led to the compilation of Rymer's Fcedera, with 
which the reader will be pleased, as it is more circumstantial and 
detailed than what we find in the Life of Rymer contained in our 
Biographical Dictionaries, on which account I subjoin it. 

" Soon after King William and Queen Mary's accession to the 
throne, Mr. Harley, afterwards Earl of Oxford, formed a plan for 
printing at the public expense, all the Leagues, Treaties, Alliances, 
Capitulations, and Confederacies, which had at any time been 
made between the Crown of England, and other Kingdoms, 
Princes, and States, intermixed with such instruments, and papers 
of state, as either more immediately related to them, or were 
curious and useful in illustrating the English history. This 
design he communicated to the Earl of Halifax, who not only 
approved of the plan, but got Mr. Rymer, then Historiographer 
Royal, appointed to carry it into execution, 

" That Mr. Rymer might have every facility towards the accom- 
plishment of so great and useful a work, he received Queen Mary's 
warrant, dated August the 20th, 1693, empowering him to tran- 
scribe and publish all the leagues, &c. &c. and the same 
warrant gave him liberty of access to all the different repositories 
of the Public Records. To this was added an Order of the King 
in Council, dated April 12th, 1694, to the Lord Keeper of the 
Great Seal, commanding him to cause a Writ to be sealed and 
directed to the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, and 
the Chamberlain of the Exchequer, authorizing, and requiring 
them to deliver, or cause to be delivered, to Mr. Thomas Rymer, 
all Leagues, Treaties, &c. &c. remaining in the several Treasuries 
of the Exchequer, which he shall have occasion for, or desire. 

" Thus encouraged and assisted, Rymer commenced his work. 
The first volume was published in 1704, eleven years after the date 
of the first warrant. The first fourteen volumes of this interesting 
work were published during Mr. Rymer's lifetime ; and the 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLAUKE, LI,. P., F. A. S. 



321 



fifteenth and sixteenth were prepared for the press^ and published 
after his death, which happened in 1713, by his assistant, Mr. 
Sanderson, afterwards Keeper of the Rolls, and who likewise 
added a seventeenth volume, with an extensive apparatus of 
Indexes, and ultimately subjoined three other volumes — making- in 
the whole twenty volumes folio. From any thing we can learn 
from Mr. Rymer to the contrary, the whole of these sixteen 
volumes were collected and arranged by himself. 

" Thus was completed what may be properly termed, the First 
Edition of the Foedera, begun in 1704, and completed in 1717. The 
first edition of the Foedera was succeeded by a reprint, it having be- 
come very scarce. This second edition was conducted by Mr. 
George Holmes, Keeper of the Towei Records ; and afterwards a 
new edition was undertaken at the Hague by the booksellers, in 
1738 or 1 739, which was completed in ten vohimns folio. It is not 
known who was the editor of this edition. The work itself is a 
proud monument of the glory of the British Nation, and to the en- 
larged views, and munificence of tliose sovereigns under whose 
auspices it was projected, conducted, and published. I need not 
consider the various attempts made in remote reigns to methodize 
the invaluable materials which came at last under the hands of Mr. 
Rymer: these were, for the most part, lost before his time." While 
engaged on this continuation of Rymer, Dr. Clarke drew up a 
number of Reports on subjects connected with the undertaking- and 
which were submitted to the Board of Commissioners, some of wliich 
were extremely curious, and all of them calculated to evince his 
extensive and deep research ; they display learned criticism and 
important discoveries on matters of high historical interest. Among 
these were " A Report on Ecclesiastical Charters and Privileges." 
Another on "the use Mr. Rymer appears to have made of the An- 
tient English Historians :" — " A Synopsis of the Contents and De- 
ficiencies of the first one hundred yeais of Rymer's Foedeia," &c, 
&c. The result of all this laborious investigation was — a kind of 
demonstration, that not only was a new edition of the Foedera 
wanted, but that the work was capable of undergoing vast improve- 
ments in various repects — for that it was not safe entirely to u ust 
to the Records of Rymer, who, though he did much, yet by his want 

2 F 



322 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

of rigid enquiry, he omitted to do all that even his time and circum- 
stances allowed of.*' 

These Reports and the varied information which they served to 
elicit, brought the Board of Commissioners to a pause, and a note 
was sent to Dr. Clarke, requesting him to furnish them with an an- 
swer to two points — which answer must govern their proceedings as 
to the best plan to be adopted with reference to the Continuation 
and Supplement. He did so, and, as he tells us, " in May 1809, 
I took the liberty to propose the expediency and necessity of a new 
edition of the Fcedera, in which the collections now in hand, should 
be incorporated with the original work, and endeavoured to support 
the recommendation by a variety of arguments. I am fully con- 
vinced by my subsequent experience, that the Fcedera stands in 
need of a thorough revision, and I once more beg leave to press the 
present adoption of the measure on his Majesty's Commissioners, as 
the only one that is likely to meet their wishes, and be ultimately 
creditable to the undertaking. The Fcedera is completely out of 
print; but even if it were not, there are motives sufficient to justify 
the measure; as, under the direction of his Majesty's Commissioners, 
the work can now be made much more perfect, accurate, and use- 
ful, than it ever was before, even in its amended edition. ' The Con- 
tinuation will come in as an integral part of the work — the ' Sup- 
plement' be absorbed in the improvement of the original, and the 
Fcedera be at its Standard for ever! Were I to repress the present 
recommendation of a new edition of the Fcedera, I should not feel 
justified in my own mind, or think I was fulfilling the duty I owe 
to the trust reposed in me by the right honourable the Commis- 
sioners : I crave their indulgence, my only excuse being the con- 
cern I feel for the accomplishment and perfection of the work." 

A Meeting of the Board of Commissioners was, soon afterwards, 
held at the house of the Right Hon. the Speaker of the House of 
Commons, when Dr. Clarke's Report was read, and made the sub- 
ject of deliberation ; and in conclusion, it was " Ordered — That Dr. 
Clarke do forthwith prepare materials for a first volume of a new 
edition of Rymer according to the plan laid down in his Report, 
and that when the same shall be collected and arranged, with a de- 
acriptive Table of its Contents, the entire Manuscript be submitted 



Of THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D.^ F. A. S. 



323 



to the Commissioners for examination by them, before it is com- 
mitted to the press : and that Dr. Clarke be also desired to propose 
a plan for carrying on the Continuation concurrently." Thus was 
the foundation laid for a new and improved edition of this great 
national work, at the suggestion, upon the plan, and under the ma- 
nagement of Dr. Clarke, who now proceeded with all convenient speed 
to collect, arrange, and methodize his materials. In May 1811, he 
proceeded to Dublin in quest of Diplomatic or other state Papers ; 
and on his return, these were sent in to be viewed by the Board, 
accompanied by a Report, in which he says, that " having examined 
all the depositories of the Public Records (in that country ) and 
after a general view of their contents, I feel myself obliged to state, 
that I think it a most fortunate thing for the Records of Ireland, 
that a Record Commission has been established for that country ; 
as in a very few years, it is more than probable, many of the valu- 
able materials contained in those places, would have been otherwise 
utterly ruined ; dispersion and destruction having already made 
rapid progress among these important documents ; and though the 
Commission has but recently been established, the good effects of it 
are every day becoming more observable. If the Honourable the 
Speaker could see the ruin and desolation, the progress of which 
he has been the means of arresting among the Records of Ireland, 
he would be not a little rejoiced. The Irish Chancellor is very at- 
tentive to the interests of the Irish Commission, and William Shaw 
Mason, Esq. Secretary, and many other gentlemen of learning and 
abilities, are laboriously arid diligently employed to prosecute this 
desirable work ; and order is, already, through their talents and in- 
dustry beginning to arise out of confusion and destruction. 

To the Report Dr. Clarke subjoined a list of the State Papers, 
and other documents of importance, connected with the work in hand, 
which he had procured in DubHn, &c., and the Doctor observes, that 
some of these State Papers were found in the libraries of private 
gentlemen — owing probably to the long distracted state in which 
the country had been involved. " Every one" as he justly remarks, 
" must feel the importance of all such papers, letters, instruments, 
&c., &c., which so entirely refer to State affairs, being collected and 
depesitedin some national place of safety, where they may be kcjjit 



MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE. MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



carefully as matters of reference and national diplomatic wealth to 
the latest periods of time." 

In one of the Reports which Dr. Clarke submitted to the Boara 
of Commissioners, he recommends the insertion of many curious 
letters of Mary Queen of Scots, which it appears had not then seen 
the light. Also, he adds, " While I take it for granted that all the 
Original Plates, which have adorned the different editions of the 
Foedera, must be re-engraved, I submit to his Majesty's Commis- 
sion, whether a few others might not be added," and then specifies 
some which had attracted his notice in the Bodleian — the Cotton Li- 
brary — the British Museum, &c., of which he would have fac-si- 
milies engraved. This was accordingly done, conformable to his 
suggestion, and under his superintendence ; and they unquestion- 
ably add a valuable and gratifying feature to the work. The Magna 
Charta and Charta de Foresta, with the modifications, explanations, 
and enlargements which they underwent in various reigns, with the 
entire series of State Papers to which they gave rise ; and which 
were unaccountably omitted in the preceding editions, are introduced 
by Dr. Clarke into this new and improved one — the whole are now 
for the first time carefully inserted from the Originals. 

In a general introduction to the Foedera, reference is made to 
several disputable documents connected with the subject; and 
particularly " Observations on two documents proposed to have 
been inserted in the new edition of the Fcedera." The first is the 
Charter said to have been granted by William the Conqueror to 
Alan Fergent, Earl of Brittany, of all the lands which belonged 
to Edwyn, earl of Mercia. The question of the authenticity of this 
document, admits of much argumentation on either side. Dr. 
Clarke took up the subject and discussed it at great length — 
answering every objection raised against its authenticity; and this 
ansner the Commissioners ordered to be printed. 

The other document referred to is styled De Navibiis ; it is a 
curious account of the means afforded by the Norman nobility, to 
enable William, their duke, to attempt the Conquest of England. 
It exists in a MS. evidently of the eleventh century, found in the 
Bodleian Library. This, and other collateral topics connected 
with it, Dr. Clarke discussed with his usual learning and ingenuity. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CL.kRKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



325 



leaving it with the Board of Commissioners to dispose of them as 
they pleased. 

These labours in the service of his King and Country do great 
honour to Dr. Clarke's memory ; nor can we wonder that they 
tended greatly to impair his health. He persevered in them during 
a period of ten years ; and, what must fill us with astonishment, 
he was also engaged almost the whole time in writing and seeing 
through the press, his " Commentary on the Bible" — in itself an 
Herculean task ; the first volume of which was delivered to the 
public, complete, in September, 1810, two years only after he had 
engaged in the business of the Board of Commissioners. Who can 
wonder, therefore, that after seeing four volumes of the Foedera 
through the press, he should urge the Board to dispense with his 
further services. His health was fast declining under his accumu- 
lated labours ; and he had removed to a country residence, at Mill- 
brook, in Lancashire, two hundred miles from London. The dis- 
tance of his residence from the press, &c., and the seat of his govern- 
ment employment, made him not only long to close his labours in 
that department, but induced him on three different occasions to 
send in his resignation to the " Board" — but these were severally 
refused. At length, however. His Majesty's Commissioners finding, 
that, owing to his removal from London, he could not carry on the 
work without many interruptions, his desire to retire from the Sub- 
Commission was accepted : and accordingly at a Board of the 
Commission, held on the 24th March, 1819, it was resolved : 

« That this Board, at the same time that it duly appreciates the 
meritorious services of Dr. Clarke on this work hitherto, is of 
opinion that his distant residence from London, and other causes 
necessarily adverse to the speedy execution of it, render it expedient 
that his part in the future prosecution of it in the press, should be 
transferred to their Secretary, who is desired to proceed on the 
same accordingly." 

Under the above minute. Dr. Clarke wrote : — 

N. B. " I sent in my resignation of my Sub-Commissionership 
on the public Records of the Kingdom twice before ; but His 
Majesty's Commissioners did not think proper to accept it till the 
present year. Almost all the operations under tliat Commission 



326 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



are now finally closed. I have acted under it, from March, 1808, 
till the date of the above Minute. For my character and conduct 
in the work, see Lord Colchester's letter to me, dated March 21st, 
of the present year, 1819. 

Adam Clarke." 

The following is the letter of Lord Colchester, to which Dr. 
Clarke refers : 

Kidbrook, March 21st, 1819 

" Dr. Sir, 

" I will not lose a day in assuring you that you have, and ever 
have had, through your long and successful labours under the Record 
Commission, ray entire confidence and approbation ; and on the 
immediate subject of your letter of the 18th, I have the pleasure 
to communicate to you not only my own sentiments, but those of 
a very distinguished member of the Commission, who was with me 
when your letter arrived, and we are both satisfied, (as it is likely 
we should be, ) with the complete refutation which you have given 
to the objections so irregularly introduced, and with so little founda- 
tion in the proposed Preface to the fourth volume of the Statutes.* 
Believe me to be ever. 
Dear Sir, 

Most truly and faithfully yours, 

Colchester." 

Dr. Clarke recorded what were the feelings and impressions with 
which he took leave of this part of his public duties, in the following 
affecting terms : 

" And here I register my thanks to God, the fountain of wisdom 
and goodness, who has enabled me to conduct this most difficult 
and delicate work for ten years, with credit to myself, and satis- 
faction to His Majesty's government. During that time I have 
been requested to solve many difficult questions, and illustrate 
many obscurities ; m none of which have I ever failed, though the 

* Referring to some illiberal reflections of Sir T. E, T. on that part of the 
Fcedera, in which *' Magna Charta" and its various corresponding instruments 
were published : an imbelle telum. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 327 

subjects were such as were by no means familiar to me, having 
had little of an Antiquarian, and nothing of a forensic education. 
I began the work with extreme reluctance, and did every thing 
I could to avoid the employment : but was obliged to yield to the 
wishes of some persons high in power, who had, in vain, for seven 
years, endeavoured to find some person to undertake the task. The 
work was to collect from all the archives of the United Kingdom, 
all the authentic State Papers from the Conquest to the Accession 
of George III. to arrange and illustrate them in frequent reports 
to the Right Hon. His Majesty's Commissioners on the public 
Records of the Kingdom, for the purpose of ' completing and con- 
tinuing that collection of State Papers called Rymer's F(EDERa,' 
of which I have carried near four volumes folio through the press. 
Many endeavoured to carp at the work, but their teeth were broken 
in their attempt to gnaw the file. I hope I may now take leave 
of the work, and my conflicts with, — - 

* Hie Victor coestus artemque repono.* 

" To God only wise, be glory and dominion, by Christ Jesus, 
for ever and ever. Amen. 

Adam Clarke." 

Millbrook, March 30th, 1819. 



SECTION XV. 

Dr. Clarke s acquaintance with Richard Porson, M. A, and tome 
account of that Eminent Scholar — the Doctor prefects a New 
Edition of the London Polyglott and Heptaglott Lexicon — 
Publishes the first part of his Commentary, a. D. 1808—1810. 

In the year 1808, at the pressing solicitation of Mr. Joseph 
Butterworth and several of his intimate friends. Dr. Clarke was 
prevailed upon to become librarian of the Surry Institution, an 
institution then of recent origin, and not destined for very long 
duration, for it has since ceased to exist; but at the end of the first 
year he relinquished the office, refusing to accept any remunera- 



328 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

tion \rhatever for his services. As a mark of respect, howevei, the 
managers constituted him honorary librarian," which he con- 
tinued to be during the whole of the existence of the institution. 

In the course of the year that he resided at the Surry Institution, 
the death of the learned Porson took place ; and as Dr. Clarke 
had previously been acquainted with him, and visited him during 
his illness, he gave to the world a short account of the last illness 
and death of that extraordinary man, with a fac simile of an 
ancient Greek inscription, which formed the topic of his last 
literary conversation. 

Richard Porson is now universally admitted to have been the 
greatest of the verbal critics and classical scholars of modern times. 
He was born on the 25th December, 1759, at East Ruston, near 
North \V<ils]-aiTi, in Norfolk, of which place his father held the 
huDible oTiire of parish clerk. His father taught him, in his child- 
hood, to practise all the common rules of Arithmetic by memory 
only ; and before he w^as nine years old, he had learned to extract 
the cube root in this manner. He employed, at the same time, for 
teaching him to read and write, the method which has since been 
generally indoduced in the Lancasterian and other schools of 
mutual instruction, making him draw the letters with chalk, or 
on sand, and the neatness and accuracy of his hand writing, for 
which he was distinguished through life, may be considered as 
bearing am|)le testimony to his father's ingenuity and success. 
At the age of nine he was sent to a village school, kept by a Mr. 
Summers ; but his father still made him repeat by heart, in the 
evening, the whole of the lessons of the day ; and there seems to be 
sufficient evidence for considering this practice of exercising the 
memory continually, in very early life, as the best, if not the only 
method of cultivating, if not of producing, great talent ; for though 
a strong memory by no moans constitutes great talent, yet its pos- 
session is almost a necessary condition for the successful exertion 
of talent in general : and it is very possible that the other faculties 
of the mind may be strengthened by the early cultivation of this 
one. It is remarkable that Dr. Wallis, who was as deservedly 
celebrated in his day as Porson, for his unerring sagacity, had also 
a singular facility of retaining numbers and calculations in his 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 329 

memory, but without having taken any particular pains to acquire 
the habit. Mr. Hewitt, the vicar of the parish of East Ruston, 
hearing of young Person's uncommon capacity, undertook to 
instruct both him and his brother Thomas in classical literature ; 
and when he was about fifteen, Mr. Norris, a wealthy and respect- 
able gentleman of the neighbourhood, having ascertained the truth 
of the reports that were current respecting him, resolved to be at 
the expense of sending him to Eton. Without this assistance it 
would have been impossible for Porson to have acquired great 
excellence in any intellectual pursuit; for his father's situation 
in life was not such as to exempt his son, even from the subordi- 
nate occupations of the country. He went out gleaning, in the 
autumn, with a Horace in his pocket; and he had learned by ex- 
perience to appreciate the mechanical labour of Penelope, before 
he was much acquainted with the wisdom and wanderings of 
Ulysses. 

At Eton his talents procured him the friendship and admiration 
of the seniors among his school-fellows; and, upon the unfortunate 
death of Mr. Norris, who had kindly patronized him, he found a 
number of liberal contributors vvho stepped forward to supply the 
deficiency ; but by far the most active of them was Sir George 
Baker, then president of the Royal College of Physicians — a man 
as much distinguished by his own classical taste and acquirements, 
as by his laudable disposition to cherish learning in others. He 
received young Porson into his house for a vacation, and under- 
took at the request of a relation of Mr. Norris, the unpleasant task 
of receiving in small sums, as much as was sufficient to purchase 
an income of eighty pounds a year, for a few years, in the short 
annuities, which served, with great economy, to enable him to 
remain at Eton. This favour appears to have been too great to be 
properly acknowledged, or perhaps even duly appreciated, by its 
object, who, only after many years had elapsed, paid Sir George 
the tardy compliment of a dedication, not, however, of an edition, 
but of a handsome copy of a single play of Euripides. In his own 
opinion, Porson learned little at Eton besides the quantity of syl- 
lables, being able to repeat by heart before he went there, the 
principal part of the authors whom he had to read, namely, almost 

2 U 



330 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

the whole of Horace and Virgil, and the lUiad, with many parts of 
Cicero, Livy, and the Odyssey. A story is accordingly told of his 
book having been exchanged by one of his schoolfellows in joke, 
when he was going up to say a lesson in Horace, and of his having 
read and translated what was required of him without at all betray- 
ing to the master the change which had been made of his book. 
At the same time, the emulation of a public school must have been 
a great advantage to him, as affording him a motive to exertion in 
his exercises, whether they were to be called his own, or to be 
written for other boys. It was a copy of Toup's Longinus, pre- 
sented to him as a reward for a good exercise, that first gave him a 
decided inclination for the pursuit of critical researches ; but he 
' always considered Bentley and Dawes as his great masters in 
criticism. 

In 1777, he was sent to Trinity College Cambridge, where he 
began to apply more particularly to the study of the Mathematics, 
which had been the favourite study of his boyhood, and in which, 
as he himself remarked, his proficiency first brought him into a 
certain degree of public notice. He was, however, soon diverted 
from the pursuit, although he obtained a place among the senior op- 
times of the year. But he was in fact more calculated for classical 
than for mathematical excellence ; his memory would have been in 
a great measure thrown away, if he had been employed in abstract 
calculations ; and his inventive powers did not appear to have been 
at all of the same class with his retentive faculties ; although cer- 
tainly in the mechanical pursuit of the fashionable methods of 
modern analysis, which are intended, like steam engines, to over- 
come all difficulties by the inanimate forces of mere patience and 
perseverance, he was capable of filling as distinguished a place as 
any living algebraist. The Classical Prize Medal, and the Uni- 
versity Scholarship, he obtained without difficulty, as matters of 
course. The exercise which he exhibited upon the examination for 
the scholarship, is the well known translation of an epitaph into 
Greek Iambics. 

Mr. Porson obtained a fellowship of Trinity College in 1781, 
and took his degree of Master of Arts, in 1785; but declining to 
subscribe the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, he 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



331 



could not be admitted into holy orders, and was therefore un- 
avoidably deprived of his fellowship in 1791, having no depend- 
ance left for his subsistence through life, except his abilities and 
acquirements. His friends, however, did not abandon him on this 
urgent occasion, and in order to keep him out of actual want, a 
private subscription was set on foot, the result of which was the 
purchase of an annuity of one hundred pounds a-year for life. A 
small addition was made to his income, about two years after, by 
his election to the Greek professorship at Cambridge, with a salary 
of only forty pounds a year. The situation, however, gave him 
the option of at least doubling his whole receipts, by the delivery 
of an annual course of lectures in the University : and it was sup- 
posed that he would have made this exertion if he had not been 
discouraged by the difficulty of obtaining rooms in his college, 
where it would have been his wish to reside. 

In 1795, Porson married a Mrs. Lunan, sister of the late Mr. 
James Perry, well known as the editor and proprietor of the Morn- 
ing Chronicle newspaper; but he had the misfortune to lose his 
wife two years afterwards. In Mr. Perry, however, he found one 
of his chiefest friends through life ; he was truly his benefactor, 
and he knew how to oblige him essentially without the appearance 
of doing him a favour. Porson had sometimes chambers in the 
Temple, and sometimes he lodged at the Morning Chronicle 
office ; frequently, also, he was a visitor at Mr. Perry's house at 
Merton, where he had the misfortune, on* one occasion, to leave 
several of his books at the time of a fire which destroyed them all, 
and among them some letters of Rhunkenius, with whom he had 
begun a correspondence in 1783, and who had communicated to 
him some valuable fragments of iEschylus, besides his manuscript 
copy of the Lexicon of Photius, which had cost him two years 
labour. Porson was wont to say that this fire had destroyed the 
fruits of twenty years of his life. 

One of Porson's singularities was a fondness for fine penman- 
ship, which mechanical employment, to the regret of many of his 
friends, tempted him to wziste much of his valuable time on a tri- 
fling amusement ; but, in fact, his mode of writing Greek, was fully 
as much calculated for expedition as for beauty, and those who 



332 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

Lave not bedi in the habit of correcting mutilated passages of 
manuscripts, can form no estimate of the immense advantage that 
is obtained, by the complete sifting of every letter, which the mind 
involuntarily performs, while the hand is occupied in tracing it; so 
that if the correction of Photius was really worth the labour of tw o 
years of Porson s life, it would have been scarcely possible to em- 
ploy the greater part of those years more advantageously than by 
copying him as he did twice over. Mr. Weston, in speaking of his 
matchless penmanship, ' has observed, not very intelligibly, that, 
here, indeed, he thought himself surpassed by another person, 
not in the stroke, but in the sweep, of his letters : " what Porson 
really said on this subject was, that, " with respect to command of 
hand, that person had the advantage, but he preferred the model 
on which his own hand was formed." His writing was in fact, 
more like that of a scholar, while the method explained in Mr. 
Hodgkin's Calligraphia, exhibits more of the work of a writing 
master; holding, however, a middle place between the neatness of 
Porson, and the wonderful accuracy of the country schoolmaster 
who made the fac simile of the Oxford Pindar in the British 
Museum. 

Upon the establishment of the London Institution, his friends 
obtained for him the very desirable appointment of principal 
librarian, with a salary of £200 a year, and apartments in the 
house of the Institution, which was then in the Old Jewry; but 
although the arrangement was highly honourable to all parties, 
the librarianship was little more than a sinecure. Porson was, 
however, in the habit of attending in his place when the reading- 
room was open, and of communicating, very readily, all the literary 
information that was required by those who consulted him, respect- 
ing the object of their researches. Had the inhabitants of Fins- 
bury Square and its neighbourhood been more disposed to classical 
studies, and had the librarian of the institution survived to witness 
its completion and prosperity, his sphere of usefulness would, 
without doubt, have been greatly extended. 

But it must ever be lamented that Porson's habits of life had 
unfortunately been such as to lay a foundation for a multitude of 
diseases. He suffered much from asthma, throughout 1808; his 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE. I.L. D., F. A. S. 333 

memory began to fail him a littie, and in the aiitiunn he had some 
symptoms of intermittent fever. On Monday tlie 19th September, 
he htid an attack of apoplexy in the street, and he was conveyed to 
a neighbouring poor-house in a state of insensibility. On the 
following day an advertisement appeared in one of the papers, 
relating the accident, and describing some manuscripts which were 
found in his pocket, consisting of Greek fragments and Algebraical 
characters. His friends at the London Institution immediately 
went in quest of him. He was afterwards well enough to appear 
in the library, and to receive a visit there from Dr. Adam Clarke ; 
but his speech was impaired and his faculties evidently imperfect. 
He survived only through the week, and died in his forty-ninth 
year, on Sunday the 25th of September, 1808, at midnight. He 
was buried at Cambridge, in Trinity College Chapel, near the 
grave of Bentley, and the monument of Newton. 

To attempt to form a correct estimate of such a character as 
Porson, without servilely following the dictates of common fame, 
or blindly adopting the opinions of others, is a task of no little 
difficulty. But it may be safely conceded to common fame and to 
partial friendship, that he was one of the greatest men, and the 
very greatest critic, of his own or of any other age. " Nothing came 
amiss," says Mr. Weston, " to his memory. He would set a child 
right in his two-penny fable book, repeat the whole of the moral 
tale of the Dean of Badajos, a page of Athaeneus on cups, or of 
Eustathius on Homer, even though he did every thing to impair 
his mental faculties." It cannot, however, be denied, that the 
talents, and even the industry that he possessed, might have made 
him a much greater man, had they been employed in some other 
department of human intellect. He might probably have been as 
great a statesman, or as great a general, as he was a scholar ; and 
in these capacities his acquirements would have affected the interests 
of a much greater multitude of his fellow-creatures, than can ever 
be benefited by the fruits of his erudition ; and he might possibly 
have gained more popularity as an orator or a poet, than his re- 
fined investigations of grammar and prosody could ever procure 
him, although it is not by any means certain that his fancy and 
invention could have been rendered by any cultivation at all com- 



334 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

parable to his memory and acuteness. But as far as regards the 
possession of a combination of the faculties which he did cultivate, 
he appears to have been decidedly the most successful of any man 
on record in the same department. On the other hand, it must be 
admitted, that the subjects of his pursuits were in their nature in- 
capable of raising a man to the first rank among the permanent 
benefactors of the human race ; and if we calmly consider the 
ultimate objects of prosody and metre, it will appear almost un- 
fair to allow the discoverer of the rules of prosody adopted by the 
ancient poets in their melo-drames and choi uses, to rank very high 
among the luminaries of the age in which their lot is cast. 

Among the talents of Porson, however, which were so far superior 
to the importance of the objects on which they were employed, we 
ought not, perhaps, to consider his remarkable strength of memory 
as the most to be envied, since many persons who have been pos- 
sessed of singular and almost miraculously retentive memories, 
have been but little distinguished by any other faculty ; and it 
would seem to be possible for a memory to be even too retentive 
for real practical utility. If the matter be properly considered it 
will be found a wise and benevolent arrangement of a Creative 
Providence, that a certain degree of forgetfulness or oblivion be- 
comes a most useful instrument in the advancement of human 
knowledge, enabling us readily to look back on the prominent 
features only of various objects and occurrences, and to class them 
and reason upon them, by the help of this involuntary kind of ab- 
straction and generalization, with incomparably greater facility 
than we could do, if we retained the whole detail of what had been 
once but slightly impressed on our minds. But it must be repeated, 
that Porson's judgment and acuteness were really almost para- 
mount to his memory ; and with the addition of these faculties, his 
memory naturally rendered him capable of much that would have 
been impossible without it. 

Although Porson was in many respects irregular and often idle, 
or even intemperate, yet what he did perform as a critic, may be 
allowed to leave a large balance, at the end of his life, in favour of 
his general industry, when compared with that of most of his 
countrymen. It has been asserted, and perhaps with truth, that 



OFiTHE REV, ADAM CLARKE, LI . D., F. A. S. SS5 

with things, Porson appears to have possessed but a very incon- 
siderable acquaintance, and not a trace is to be found amidst his 
writings of that combination of universal Encyclopsediacal know- 
ledge with language — learning which is so abundantly found in the 
pages of many other great scholars, such as Bentley, Scaliger, 
Salmasius and Casaubon. Yet assuredly, neither Salmasius nor 
Casaubon, with all their learning, much less Scaliger with all his 
industry and parade, nor even Bently himself with all his talent 
and acuteness, was at all comparable to Porson in his own depart- 
ment, viz. as a sound and accurate and refined Greek critic. 

Porson had read a good deal of French, but very little Italian : 
he had studied the Anglo-Saxon, but he knew nothing of the kin- 
dred dialects of the North of Europe, in which it is preserved almost 
entire : and he was wholly unacquainted with Oriental literature. 
He might have profited materially by some of these studies, in de- 
riving from them some important information which he wanted ; 
and he might have enlightened us in no small degree, with respect 
to the history of languages and of nations, by such etymological 
distinctions as his comprehensive mind, thus employed, would have 
rendered him peculiarly capable of pursuing with success. 

It can scarcely be considered as an imperfection in the constitu 
tion of Porson's mind, that he wanted that amiable vanity which is 
gratified by the approbation even of the most inconsiderable, and 
which delights to choose for its objects the most innocent and the 
most helpless of those who are casually present in society. It is 
said of him that he would neither give nor take praise; and when 
he was told that somebody had called him a giant in literature, he 
remarked " that man had no right to tell the height of that which 
he could not measure ! " In fact, having learned to know how 
little can be known,'* it is not surprising that " he found himself 
without a second and without a judge," and that he was unwilling 
to aflfect a community of sentiment, and an interchange of appro- 
bation with those whose acquirements and opinions he felt that he 
had a right to despise. It might, doubtless, have been wiser in 
some instances, to conceal this feeling ; but, on the other hand, he 
had perhaps occasion for something of the habit of retreating into 
his conscious dignity, owing- to his deficiency in those general 



336 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

powers of ephemeral conversation, which are so valuable in mixed 
societies ; for, with all his learning and all his memory, he was by 
no means prominent as a talker. He had neither the inclination 
nor the qualifications to be a fascinating story-teller ; or to become 
habitually a parasite iit the tables of the affluent ; but he was the 
delight of a limited circle of chosen friends possessing talent enough 
to appreciate his merits, and to profit by the information that he 
afforded them. 

Independent of his numerous pieces of verbal criticism on the 
Greek language, Porson is known to posterity mainly by his " Let- 
ters on the Three Heavenly Witnesses," 1 John v. 7. which first ap- 
peared in the Gentleman's Magazine, in 1788, 1789, 1790, and 
afterwards collected into an octavo volume, under the title of 
" Letters to Mr. Archdeacon Travis, in answer to his defence, &c." 
These letters are universally allowed to constitute the most power- 
ful attack upon the authenticity of that disputed text, that ever ap- 
peared in this country, and Dr. Adam Clarke, Dr. John Pye Smith, 
and most of the best Greek scholars who have succeeded Porson re- 
gard the publication as decisive of the question. It deserves, how- 
ever, to be mentioned that the learned Charles Butler, of Lincoln's 
Inn, who was intimate with Porson, tells us, that not long before 
Porson's lamented death, he was in company, with him, when the 
coversation turning on the " Heavenly Witnesses" he said " the argu- 
ment in their favour, from the confession delivered by the African 
clergy to Hunneric, King of the Goths, remained to be cleared up."* 
I shall take leave of this subject by mentioning, that the reader who 
is desirous of becoming acquainted with this controversy in all its 
bearings, will derive much assistance fj om a pamphlet of the late 
Mr. William Orme, of Camberwell, (sold by Holdsworth and Ball) 
who was at the pains of tracing the controversy from its rise and 
furnishing a history of it, in which the principal arguments pro and 
con. are very fairly given. We now resume the biography of the 
subject of this memoir. 

It was towards the end of the year 1808, and immediately after 
the decease of Porson, that Dr. Clarke was enaged in purchasing 



* See Life of Dr. Adam Clarke, Vol. II. p. 200. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. 



337 



the Diplomatic papers of Sir Andrew Mitchell, who was the British 
Plenipotentiary at the Prussian court, during the seven years war, 
1756 to 1763. It came to the knowledge of Dr. Clarke, that these 
important State Papers were iu the possession of Sir William 
Forbes, an eminent banker, in Edinburgh, who had no objection to 
part with them for a proper consideration. It first struck Dr. 
Clarke that these documents might be turned to valuable account 
in the Continuation of Rymer's Foedera, on which he was then enter- 
ing, and he accordingly applied to the Speaker of the House of 
Commons, respecting the purchase of them ; but on due considera- 
tion it did not appear to the latter that the purchase of them be- 
longed so properly to the purposes for which the Record Commis- 
sion was issued, and therefore recommended that they should be 
lodged in the British Museum, if the terms could be agreed upon, 
and the funds of that institution should be adequate to the purchase. 
The negotiation for the papers was eventually committed to Dr. 
Clarke, who with the three trustees of the C ottoman library at the 
British Museum., purchased them for four hundred pounds, and 
deposited them in the library of that institution, where they remain 
sealed up, conformable to established precedent, for thirty years, in 
order that neither individuals nor states, may be injured by a pre- 
mature disclosure of their contents. 

In the year 1810, Dr. Clarke projected, in conjunction with the 
Rev. Josiah Pratt, a new edition of the London Polyglott Bible, a 
subject which had long pressed itself upon his consideration and 
wishes. That the undertaking might have all the matured delibe- 
ration which its vast importance entitled it to, and its arduous na- 
ture required, they conjointly drew up a plan, in which they em- 
bodied their views on the subject; and having communicated them 
to a few literary friends, a meeting was appointed to take place at 
the house of Lord Teignmouth, in Portman Square, which was 
attended by that nobleman. Dr. Burgess the Bishop of St. David's, 
Dr. Williams of Rotheram, Mr. Professor Shakespeare, Archdeacon 
Wrangham, the Rev. Josiah Pratt, and Dr. Adam Clarke. 

After much general discussion on the plan, arranging the propor- 
tions of space on the page which each original text would require', 

2 X ^ 



338 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

Dr. Clarke was requested to prepare a specimen sheet in royal folio, 
reduced also to an octave size for general dis-tribution, among the 
great men of the nation, in the hope of obtaining their patronage to 
it. Lord Teignmouth undertook to forward one to each lay Lord ; 
the Bishop of St. David's promised to furnish one to every lord 
spiritual : and Dr. Clarke, through the Right Hon. the Speaker, to 
put one into the hands of each member of His Majesty's govern- 
ment. The plan was accordingly printed and distributed ; and at 
Dr. Clarke's suggestion, the bench of bishops were to be requested 
to patronize and preside over the work, having the appointment of 
all the scholars who should be employed in carrying forward this 
great undertaking. The title of the tract was, " A Plan and Speci- 
men of Biblia Polyglotta Britannica, or an enlarged and improved 
edition of the London Polyglott Bible, with Castell's Heptaglott 
Lexicon." In this Prospectus Messrs. Clarke and Pratt insisted on 
the importance of Polyglott editions of the Scriptures, serving as 
secure repositories of the most pure copies of the Original texts 
and Ancient Versions, which can be formed from all the accessible 
sources of criticism at the respective periods of their publication, 
forming, in consequence, standard texts, which are followed in 
smaller editions, and also exhibiting the Texts and Versions in such 
order and connection, as to supply the best means of interpreting 
the Scriptures. They further remark that the Biblia Polyglotta, and 
Lexicon Heptaglotton has continued a monument of the erudition 
and munificence of the British nation for a hundred and fifty years ; 
no other state having attempted, since its publication, any improve- 
ment on its plans or execution. " A new race of scholars" say they, 
" has however sprung up in this interval who have opened and 
freely used new sources of sacred criticism. Invaluable copies of 
the Originals and Versions have been discovered and diligently col- 
lected, while some Ancient Versions, not previously known to exist, 
have been brought to light, and these other means of connecting 
and illustrating the sacred text have been applied to this purpose 
on sound and discriminating principles of criticism. It now re- 
mains for the united British Empire to answer the wishes of scholars 
throughout Europe, and to confirm and perpetuate its former lite- 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 339 

rary claims on their gratitudejjy republishing the Polyglott Bible, 
in a manner worthy of the national munificence, and the present 
matured state of biblical learning." 

The following observations with which the Prospectus concludes 
are worthy of notice : " In such an undertaking, besides tlie addi- 
tions which may be made to the London Polyglott, and the correc- 
tion of the Texts and Versions from all the authorities hitherto 
discovered, the Latin translations of the Ancient Versions, well 
known to be very faulty and often to have misled students, must be 
entirely revised, and the arrangement of the whole may be so much 
improved as to exhibit on a single opening of the book, all matters 
connected with the Texts, Versions, and Various Readings of any 
passage, instead of having to turn from them to different volumes, 
as is the case in preceding Polyglotts." 

When the Prospectus was once issued and circulated, it is natural 
to suppose that the hopes and expectations of the projectors were 
raised to the highest pitch, and that they anticipated a successful 
issue. Some of the Lords both Spiritual and Temporal entered 
warmly into' the project, and Dr. Clarke and Mr. Pratt corresponded 
with different learned men on the Continent to induce them to 
help forward the work by their learning and talents, engaging them 
to promise to undertake different departments in the execution of 
the whole. Several private gentlemen also, much to their honour, 
came forward with munificent offers of pecuniary aid in order to 
bring about a work, not only of such magnitude, but also of such 
high importance, of literary and national honour. Among these 
was the late Joseph Butterworth, Esq. who most liberally promised 
FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS as a gift towards the expences of the first 
volume. But notwithstanding the sound and conclusive reason- 
ings contained in the Address: after all that was hoped, and 
all that was done to further the undertaking, it proved to be of too 
great magnitude to meet with adequate support at the moment. 
The country had been nearly twenty years engaged in a war, unex- 
ampled in modern times for profuse and lavish expenditure, and it 
was still going forward without any prospect of cessation. The 
best friends of the country were justly alarmed for its safety, and 
consequently little disposed to bring such a laborious and mighty 



340 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

project forward. Had the undertaking been brought forward teu 
years later, it is highly probable it would have met with better pa- 
tronage and support. 

While the matters now narrated were in progress. Dr. Clarke was 
busily engaged in bringing out the first Section of his Commentary 
oil the Holy Scriptures ; which was issued from the press in the 
month of July, 1810, under the following title: 

" The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments : the 
Text carefidly printed from the most correct copies of the present au- 
thorized translation ; including the Marginal Readings, and Parallel 
Teocts. With a Commentary and Critical Notes ; designed as a help 
to a better understanding of the Sacred Writings." 

Previous to the appearing of Dr. Clarke's Work, it cannot with 
truth be said that the British public were altogether destitute of 
valuable treatises adapted to facilitate an understanding of the Holy 
Scriptures. The Biblical Student who was in quest of Rabbinical 
learning might gratify himself with the Exposition of the learned 
Dr. Gill, in nine folio, or ten quarto volumes — a monument of eru- 
dition and Oriental lore. And if deterred by its magnitude or the 
Calvinistic complexion of the Doctor's Theological Creed,Jie could 
have recourse to the invaluable tomes of Patrick, Lowth, and 
Whitby, in six volumes quarto, or to the work of Matthew Henry, 
in the same number — or to that of Thomas Scott, which is of the 
same extent : and none of them without their excellencies. 

Dr. Clarke's Commentary was doubtless intended more particu- 
larly for the use of the people among whom it was his lot in Provi- 
dence to labour and instruct — the Wesleyan Methodists ; and con- 
sequently the doctrinal sentiment which pervades it is more decid- 
edly of the school of Arminius than is the case with any of the 
other works now mentioned. It was however, ushered into the 
world with an " advertisement," so modest that I have great 
pleasure in extracting it in this place. 

" Through many delays occasioned by a variety of hindrances, 
the detail of which would be useless to the reader, I have at length 
brought this (first) part of my work to its conclusion, and now send 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



341 



it to the public, not without a measure of anxiety ; for though per- 
fectly satisfied with the purity of my motives, and the simplicity of 
my intention, I am far from being- pleased with the work itself The 
wise and the learned will no doubt find many things defective, and 
perhaps, several incorrect. In my plan defects are unavoidable ; 
the perpetual study to be as concise as possible, while endeavouring 
to get at the bottom of every thing, has, no doubt, in several cases, 
produced obscurity. Whatever errors may be observed, must be 
attributed to the scantiness of knowledge; when compared with the 
learning and information necessary for the tolerable perfection of 
such a work. To an undertaking of this kind, a man's whole life 
should be dedicated — to me this is impossible, having a variety of 
other avocations, most of which have an equal claim on my time 
and attention. It is true, that for many years past, I have been 
making collections for this v/ork ; but finding it necessary to alter 
my plan, I have been obliged to begin the whole anew, without 
availing myself of a single page of what I had already written. — I 
have re-transcribed the whole and have made innumerable retrench- 
ments and additions throughout. 

" I had at first designed to introduce a considerable portion of 
criticism on the sacred text, accompanied with illustrations from 
ancient authors ; but after having made many collections of this 
kind, on some particular parts, 1 was induced to throw almost the 
whole of them aside, for two reasons : 1st, because a continuation 
of my original plan through the whole work, would have necessa- 
rily taken up more time than I could have well spared : and 2nd, be- 
cause, having designed my notes, not for the learned, but for com- 
paratively simple people, or those whose avocations prevent them 
horn entering deeply into subjects of this kind ; I thought it best to 
bring every thing as much as possible within their reach, and thus 
study rather to be useful, than to appear learned. The criticism 
which may be found in the work is of a very humble description 
its chief merit consisting in pointing out the force and meaning of 
certain expressions, which no simple translation can reach ; and 
the doing this in such a way, as to cause the subject to be the more 
easily understood. By the standard, therefore, of sincere endea- 
vour to be useful, I wish alone mv work to be tried : and I hope 



34}2 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



that none will look for more in it than the title will authorize him 
to expect. I do not pretend to write for the learned; I look up to 
ihem myself for instruction : all the pretensions of my work are 
included in the sentence that stands on the title — it is designed as 
* a help to a better understanding of the Sacred Writings.* Here 
its claim ends. If there be but a few spots, such as may be fairly 
attributed to human frailty, and comparatively inefficient means, 
the candid will pass them by, in favour of the general principle. 
What is now before the reader is a fair specimen of the whole ; it 
he be pleased, and in any measure profited by it, should God spare 
him and the author, he may expect further improvement. In the 
mean time let him remember, that though even Paul should plant, 
and Apollos water, it is God alone that gives the increase." 

London, September the 8th, 1810. A. C. 

This is placing the subject upon its proper basis ; and in esti- 
mating the merits of Dr. Clarke's performance, it is incumbent on 
us to test it by the standard which he has laid down. The Sacred 
Scriptures contain a complete revelation of the will of God ; as re- 
gards his fallen creature man. They make known to us the true 
character of God, and the duties which we owe to him, as our 
Creator, Preserver, and daily Benefactor. This revelation was 
made by degrees, but has been long since completed, and the 
Canon of Scripture finally closed. The utmost perspicuity is united 
with the greatest brevity in this wonderful book. Being the work 
of God, it possesses the perfection of its great author, and is able 
to make the man of God perfect, thoroughly furnished to every 
good work. Christians regard the Bible with veneration ; they 
are jealous of its honour, and justly regard it as the foundation of 
all their hopes ; it brings life and immortality to light, and opens 
up to their view the glorious prospect of never ending felicity be- 
yond death and the grave. On the truth of what is delivered in 
these sacred pages, they rest their eternal all : and trusting in the 
Saviour whom it reveals, they are enabled in poverty and in sick- 
ness, in affliction and death, to rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 

Every Christian will be ready to acknowledge that he is blind;, 
ignorant, and liable to err at every step ; he therefore takes the 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL.D., F. A. S. 343 



word of God as a light to his feet, and a lamp to his path — he has 
daily recourse to it as the man of his counsel and the guide of his 
life ; yet, how many, alas, are there who do not imagine that every 
part of this revelation is entitled to their most scrupulous and 
implicit regard. Some things which it contains they are apt to 
consider as indifferent and unimportant ; they will even go so far 
as to affirm that attention to these diverts the mind from funda- 
mental truths. But, can such persons be properly aware of the 
consequences to which such an opinion leads ? It represents the 
all-perfect word of God to be inconsistent, and the kingdom of the 
Lord Jesus Christ to be divided against itself, at the same time that it 
is calculated to produce disregard to every precept that thwarts our 
inclination. The sentiment is highly dishonouring to God, and 
tends to diminish our regard for his authority. It was this that 
led the holy Psalmist to say — " then shall I not be ashamed, when 
I have respect into all thy commands." If we would derive from the 
religion of the Son of God, the blessedness which is promised to those 
that believe and obey him, we must take it as a whole, and not pick 
and choose ad libitum, as whim or caprice may dictate. The Bible 
is one consistent and united whole. Every part is connected ; the 
most minute precepts are adapted to strengthen the influence of the 
most important doctrines. It is a system of divine truth entirely 
different from all human systems. Even in those which display the 
greatest human wisdom, we sometimes find inconsistencies ; but in 
the revelation of God these have no existence. So great is the 
harmony, and so intimate the connection between all parts of the 
word of God, that ignorance of one part always leads to error in 
another. 

It is freely granted that every part of divine truth is not in itself 
equally important, though all be sanctioned by the same authority. 
There are some doctrines, without the knowledge and belief of 
\vhich we cannot be saved. There are others of which good men 
have been comparatively ignorant ; nevertheless every doctrine is 
important. Through ignorance of one, we, in some measure, lose 
the beautiful harmony of divine truth. Our resemblance to God 
bears an exact proportion to our real knowledge of him. " It is 



MEMOIRS OF THE LirE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



life eternal to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he 
hath sent." Thus Paul prayed for the Colossians, " that their 
hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto 
all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledg- 
ment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ, in 
whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." 

Few things have so powerful a tendency to retard Christians in 
the knowledge of the Scriptures, as an undue deference to the 
authority of man. Divine revelation is the sole standard of truth 
and error in the concerns of religion ; and hence the admonition 
" To the Law and to the Testimony; if any man speak not ac- 
cording to this word, it is because there is no light in him." And 
Christians are commanded to " try the spirits (or doctrines which 
they hear) whether they are of God, because many false teachers 
are abroad in the world." There cannot be a greater evil among 
professed Christians than to make human writings the standard of 
their faith and practice ; and yet few things are more common. 
We too often lose sight of the fact that " to err is human," and that 
the best of men are but men at best. It was well said by the 
learned Henry Ainsworth, in the Preface to his Treatise on the 
Communion of Saints, " If any places of God's word be alleged 
amiss or impertinent, or things gathered otherwise than the text 
will afford, as through my ignorance or heedlessness, no doubt 
there are many — I humbly ask pardon for the same both of God 
and his people ; and do desire the reader not to rely upon my 
judgment in any thing, but as himself, and by the wisdom of God's 
Spirit, he shall see agreeable to truth. For if any shall build on my 
words, without sure ground from the Lord, he shall first offend 
God, who hath given his Scriptures by divine inspiration, 2 Tim. 
iii. IG, 17, to teach and persuade all truth, to reprove and correct- 
all error; to instruct in righteousiies, and make men perfect unto 
every good work : He shall injure me also, who liave written these 
things to be tried and examined by Christ's law, not to be accepted for 
a law ; and he shall injure his ow^n soul, by relying on the word 
of frail man, whose breath is in his nostrils, which cannot establish the 
heart, nor assure the conscience in any thing. Let, therefore,, the 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 345 



grass wither and the flower lade, for it is the word of our God that 
shall stand for ever ! " Isa. xl. 8.^- But to return from these miscel- 
laneous remarks to Dr. Clarke's Commentary. 

The General Preface to this work, prefixed to the quarto edilior, 
exhibits a striking proof of the author's intimate acquaintance with 
Bibliography — in which he was perhaps unrivalled. So much 
learning and useful knowledge compressed into the short compass 
of thirty-two pages, it is in vain to look for elsewhere. The reader 
has before him a succinct historical view of the labours of the learned 
in all languages, in every age and country, to illustrate and explain 
by their writings the oracles of God, commencing with the Hebrew 
interpreters — the dial dee Paraphrases, orTargums — Josephus, the 
Mislma, — the Talmuds — the Mazoretes, &c. &c. Then follow the 
Christian Comm.entators, beginning with the Primitive Fathers 
and Doctors, from Tatian who Avrote about the year 150, and was 
followed by Origcn in 185, to Hypolitus, A.D 230 — Chrysostom, 
A D. 344 — Jerome, 360 — Ephraim Syrus, who was contemporary 
with Jerome — Augustin a laborious and voluminous writer, on 
whose Theological system we have some rather severe strictures, 
how far just and merited I stop not to inquire: — Augustin died 
in the year 430. He was followed by Gregory the Great, 600 — 
Theophylact, 700, — the Venerable Bede, 780. — Rabanus Maurus, 
800, — Strabo, 846, with a list of inferior names, who v/rote on 
particular books, such as the Proverbs, or Song of Solomon, the 
Apocalypse, &c. Next follows a catalogue of Catholic commentators, 
among whom was Nicholaus de Lyra, (Eng. Nicholas Harper,) 
who about the year 1300 wrote very judicious Comments on the 
whole Bible, from which Martin Luther is supposed to have 
borrowed much of that light which brought about the reformation 
Hence the saying : 

* This author, Henry Ainsworth, " made a new Translation of the Pen- 
tateuch, PsahBS, and Canticles, which he illustrated with Notes, folio 1639. 
He was an excellent Hebrew Scholar and made a very judicious use of his 
Rabbinical learning in his Comment, especially on the five books of Moses. 
To his Notes on the Pentateuch I am often under obligation," Dr. Adam 
Clarke's General Preface. 

2 Y 



346 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND MRITINGS, 



Si Lyra non lyr asset r 
Lutherm non saltasset. 

*' If Lyra had not karp'd on Profanation, 
Luther had never plann'd the Reformation." 

Lyra flourished in 1300 and was the first of the Cliristian com- 
mentators since Jerome, who brought Rabbinical learning to illus- 
trate the sacred writings. Cornelius a Lapide is one of the most 
laborious and voluminous commentators since the invention of the 
art of printing. He wrote sixteen volumes folio, and was a very 
learned man; he died in 1637, and his great work was printed at 
Venice, in 1710. Father Quesnel published his well-known Moral 
Reflections on the New Testament in 1693-4, to which Dr. Clarke 
owns himself indebted, though he was a rigid predestinarian ! 
The author died at the age of eighty-six, December 2, 1719. He 
is succeeded by Calmet, whose " Commentaire Literale," on the 
whole of the Old and New Testaments, was printed at Paris, in 
1707, in twenty-six volumes quarto, and afterwards in nine volumes 
folio, 1719 — 26. Of this elaborate work Dr. Clarke says, It con- 
tains the Latin text of the Vulgate, and a French translation in 
collateral columns, with the notes at the bottom of each page. It 
has a vast apparatus of prefaces and dissertations, in which im- 
mense learning, good sense, sound judgment, and deep piety are 
invariably displayed. Though the Vulgate is his text, yet he 
notices all its variations from the Hebrew and Greek originals ; 
and generally builds his criticisms on these. He quotes all the 
ancient commentators, and most of the modem, whether Catholic 
or Protestant, and gives them due credit and praise. His illustra- 
tions of many difficult texts, referring to idolatrous customs, rites, 
ceremonies, &c. from the Greek and Roman classics are abundant, 
appropriate, and successful. His tables, maps, plans, &c. are very 
judiciously constructed, and consequently very useful. This is, 
without exception, the best Comment ever published on the Sacred 
^Yritings, either by Catholics or Protestants ; and has left little to 
be desired for the completion of such a work. It is true that its 
scarcity, voluminousness, high price, and the language in which it 
was written, must prevent it ever coming into common use in our 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 347 

country ; but it will ever form one of the most valuable parts of the 
private library of every biblical student and divine. From this 
judicious and pious commentator, I have often borrowed j and his 
contributions form some of the best parts of my work." 

"In 1753, Father Houbigant, a priest of the oratory, published 
a Hebrew Bible, in four volumes folio, with a Latin version, and 
several critical notes at the end of each chapter. He was a con- 
summate Hebraician and accurate critic : even his conjectural 
emendations of the text, cast much light on many obscure pas- 
sages ; and not a few of them have been confirmed by the manu- 
script collections of Kennicott and De Rossi. The work is as 
invaluable in its matter as it is high in price, and difficult to be 
obtained. To this publication the notes in my work are often 
under considerable obligation." 

Another class of commentators to whom Dr. Clarke refers, are 
those of the Protestant school ; and among these we have, in par- 
ticular, Tremellius, a converted Jew, who, associated with Junius, 
published a very literal Latin version of the Hebrew Bible, with 
short critical notes, folio, 1575. Hugo Grotius, who wrote notes 
on the whole of the Old and New Testaments. " His learning 
was very extensive, his erudition profound, and his moderation on 
subjects of controversy highly praiseworthy. No man possessed a 
more extensive and accurate knowledge of the Greek and Latin 
writers ; and no man has more successfully applied them to the 
illustration of the Sacred Writings. To give the literal and 
genuine sense of the Sacred Writings is always the laudable study 
of this great man: and he has not only illustrated them amply, but 
he has defended them strenuously, especially in his treatise " On 
the Truth of the Christian Religion," a truly classical performance 
which has never been answered and never can be refuted. Grotius 
also wrote a piece " On the Satisfaction of Christ." He wrote in 
Latin, and died in 1645, aged sixty -two years. 

Erasmus is well known, not only as an able editor of the Greek 
Testament, but also as commentator upon it. He was one of the 
most correct Latin scholars since the Augustan age The first 
edition of his Greek Testament appeared, in folio, 1516, the crisis 
at which Luther commenced the Reformation, and tlie learning 



S48 MEMOIRS OF THE LITE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



which it displayed made the German reformer extremely solicitous 
to enlist him as a colleague in the great work ; but he appeared so 
indecisive in his religious creed, that he has been both claimed and 
disavowed by Protestants and Catholics. Of the renowned Calvin, 
whose Commentary is so highly commended by the late Bishop 
Horsley, Dr. Clarke merely observes, that " he wrote a Commen- 
tary on all the Prophets and Evangelists" [and Apostolic Epistles 
also !] which has been in hi2:h esteem among Protestants, and is 
allowed to be a very learned and judicious work. The decided 
and active part which he took in the Reformption is well known. 
To the doctrine of human merit, indulgencies, &c. he, w ith Luther, 
o})posed the doctrine of justification by grace, through faith, for 
w hich they w^ere strenuous and successful advocates. The peculiar 
doctrines which go under the name of Mr. Calvin, [Calvinism] 
from the manner in which they have been defended by some, and 
opposed by others, have been the cause of nuich dissension among 
Protestants, of which the enemies of true religion have often availed 
themselves. Calvin is allowed by good judges to have written 
with great })urity, both in Latin and French. He died in the year 
1564." 

We are now brought near home, and the times in which our lot 
is cast. After briefly noticing the works of Hammond — Beza — 
Wells — AVetstein's Greek Testament — Hardy's ditto, with English 
notes — Ainsworth's Annotations — The Assembly of Divines' Anno- 
tations — Poole's ditto — Dr. John Lightfoot's Historical, Chrono- 
logical, and Topographical Remarks on the Old Testament, and 
his Talmudical Exercitations on the New, are spoken of as ' * in- 
valuable." He is characterised as a profound scholar, a sound 
divine, and a pious man, who brought all his immense learning to 
bear on the sacred volumes, and diffused light wherever he went. 
His works were published in two large folios, a.d. 1684 [and have 
recently been reprinted, with additions and a life of the author, in 
thirteen volumes octavo.] He died in 1675. 

Our author is not so liberal in his commendation of the labours 
of Dr. Simon Patrick, bishop of Ely, as might have been expected ; 
for, in the opinion of some very competent judges, his work de- 
serves to rank among the most eminently useful of the kind in our 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



349 



language. Dr. Clarke coldly mentions that Dr. Patrick began a 
Comment on the Old Testament^ which was finished by Dr. Lowth ; 
to which the New Testament, by Dr. Whitby, is generally added to 
complete the work. Dr. Whitby's work was first published in 
1703, and often since with many emendations. This is a valuable 
collection, and is comprised in six volumes folio, and quarto. 
Patrick and Lowth are always judicious and solid ; and Whitby is 
learned, argumentative, and thoroughly orthodox ! What accepta- 
tion the Doctor wished us to attach to the word '* orthodox," may 
be collected from his own explanation in what follows. 

The Rev. Matthew Henry, a very eminent dissenting minister, 
is author of a very extensive Commentary on the Old and New 
Testaments, in 5 vols, folio, [or 6 vols. 4to. — recently in 3 large 
vols, imperial 8vo.] and one of the most popular works of the kind 
ever published. It is always orthodox, generally judicious, and 
truly pious, and practical, and has contributed much to diffuse the 
knowledge of the Scriptures among the common people, for whose 
sakes it was chiefly written. — As I apply the term orthodox to 
persons who differ considerably in their religious creed on certain 
points, I judge it necessary, once for all, to explain my meaning. 
He who holds the doctrine of the fall of mon, and, through it, the 
universal corruption of human nature, — the Godhead of our blessed 
Redeemer — the atonement made by his obedience unto death — 
justification through faith alone in his blood — the inspiration of 
the Holy Spirit, regenerating and renewing the heart — is generally 
reputed orthodox, whether, in other parts of his creed, he be Ar- 
minian or Calvinist. Whitby and Henry held and defended all 
these doctrines in their respective Comments : therefore, I scruple 
not to say that both were orthodox. With their opinions in any of 
their other works, I have no concern." 

Dr. Gill is dismissed somewhat laconically, in less than three 
lines, thus ; — he was, " an eminent divine of the Baptist persuasion, 
and author of a very diffuse Commentary on the Old and New 
Testaments in nine vols, folio. He was a very learned and good 
man, but has often lost sight of his better judgment in spiritualizing 
his text." 

Doddridge's Family Expositor, is said to be, with the exception 



350 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

of his Paraphrase, a very judicious work — long highly esteemed, 
and worthy of all the credit it has among religious people. Still 
higher is the eulogium bestowed on Dr. Zachary Pearce, bishop 
of Rochester, whose work has been hawked upon the book-stalls, 
at almost any price, and which never could reach a second edition ! 
It is said, " we are indebted to him for an invaluable Commentary 
and notes on the Four Evangelists, the Acts, and first epistle 
to the Corinthians, two vols, quarto, 1777. The deep learning 
and judgment displayed in these Notes, are really beyond all 
praise.** 

As Dr. Clarke enters his Protest against being understood to 
furnish a perfect list of all the Expositions and Commentaries that 
have been published in our language, on a plan similar to his own 
work, we perhaps have not any just cause to complain of the omission 
of Clarke and Pyle's Paraphrase, in four octavo volumes ; nor yet 
of the work of Dr. Thomas Haweis, Rector of Aldwinkle, and 
Chaplain to the Countess of Huntingdon, in two volumes folio, or 
three volumes quarto ; but it is to be regretted that no mention is 
made of Dr. Guyse's Paraphrase of the New Testament in three 
volumes quarto, or six volumes octavo, which, though, perhaps, not 
imbued with an equal portion of learning and critical acumen, is 
assuredly not inferior to Whitby, either in orthodoxy or useful 
tendency. 

Some readers may smile on seeing Locke and Benson despatched 
in two lines, and Drs. Campbell and Macknight in three, but these 
works, especially that of Campbell, are acknowledged to abound 
*' in sound judgment, deep erudition, and a strong vein of correct 
critical acumen " 

The Expository works of Wesley and Coke — the former in four 
volumes quarto, and the latter in six, are dwelt upon with more 
complacency, and at much greater length. Dr. Clarke explains the 
reasons why Mr. Wesley's Notes on the Old Testament are meagre 
and unsatisfactory, while those of the New, are of a widely different 
description : " Though short, they are always judicious, accurate, 
spiritual, terse, and impressive." 

One is surprised at the high encomium which Dr. Clarke passes 
on A Commentary on the Old and New Testament, published by 



OF THE REV, ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S, 351 

the unprincipled" Dr. William Dodd, in three volumes folio, 
London, 1770. " Much of it" he tells us, " is taken from Calmet, 
whose work has been already characterised ; but he has enriched 
his work by many valuable notes, extracted from the inedited papers 
of Lord Clarendon, Dr. Waterland, and Mr. Locke ; besides many 
important notes borrowed from Houbigant. This work of Dodd's, 
as giving, in general, the ti'ue sense of the Scriptures, is by far the 
host Comment that has yet appeared in the English language." Dr. 
Coke's Commentary is, in the main, a reprint of Dr. Dodd's work, 
with several retrenchments and some additional reflections. Though 
the greater part of the Notes, and even the Dissertation, were re- 
published, yet all the marginal readings and parallel texts were 
entirely omitted — a thing which Dr. Clarke censures severely : the 
deficiency, however, was supplied in a later edition. 

The Rev. Thomas Scott's Commentary, which was then repub- 
lishing, and has subsequently had an extensive circulation, is 
thus spoken of. " The author's aim seems to be, ' to speak plain 
truth to plain men,' and for this purpose he has interspersed 
a multitude of practical observations all through the text, which 
cannot fail, from the spirit of sound piety which they breathe, of 
being very useful." The circumstance of the author being an Epis- 
copalian, has, no doubt, contributed greatly to extend its circula- 
tion among persons attached to the establishment, and his decidedly 
Cahinistic opinions have tended much to recommend it to the class 
of Evangelical dissenters. 

The publications of a number of learned men, both in our own 
and other countries, who have devoted their labours to the elucida- 
tion of select portions of the Holy Scriptures, are also honourably 
mentioned by Dr. Clarke ; such as Bochart, and Scheuchzer on 
the natural history of the Bible — Mr. Harmer s " Observations on 
various passages of Scripture," a work directed to an illustration of 
the difficult texts which relate to the customs and manners, religious 
and civil, of the Asiatic nations, by quotations from the works of 
ancient and modern travellers into different parts of the East, who 
have described these customs, &c. as still subsisting. Of this valu- 
able work Dr. Clarke himself gave an improved edition, in four 
volumes 8vo., 1808, 



352 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



I owtU and Vitriiiga on the prophecy of Isaiah, are made honour- 
able mention of; Blaney on Jeremiah, and Archbishop Newcome on 
the Minor prophets. Venema and bishop Home on the book of 
Psahns, are much commended ; and of the former, viz. Venema's 
Commentary on the book of Psahiis in six volumes quarto, printed 
in 1762—7, Dr. Clarke says, " through its great scarcity, tlie work 
is little known in Great Britain ; but what was said by David of 
Goliah's sword, has been said of Venema's Commentary on the 
book of Psalms, ' There is none like it.' " 

" John Albertus Bengelius, also, published an edition of the New 
Testament, with various readings, and sacli a judicious division of 
it into paragraphs as has never been equalled, and perhaps never 
can be excelled. He wrote a very learned Comment on the Apo- 
calypse, entitled, ' Gnomon Novi Testainenti, &c.' In him were 
united two rare qualifications, — the deepest piety, and the most ex- 
tensive learning." 

Compilations and Collections, constitute a fourth class of 
helps to the better understanding of the Bible ; and after specifying 
some of these Dr. Clarke shrewdly remarks: " Several minor com- 
pilations of this nature have been made by needy writers, who, wish- 
ing to get a little money, have without scruple or ceremony, bor- 
rowed from those Avhose reputation was well established with the 
public ; and by taking a little from one and a little from another, 
pretend to give the marrow of all. These pretensions have been rarely 
justified; it often requires the genius of a voluminous original writer 
to make a faithful abridgment of his work, but in most of these com- 
pilations, the love of money is much more evident than the capacity 
to do justice to the original author, or the ability to instruct and 
profit mankind. To what a vast number of these minor compila- 
tions has the excellent work of Mr. IMatthew Henry given birth ! 
every one of which, while professing to lopp offhis redundancies and 
supply his deficiencies, falls, by a semi-diameter of the immense orb 
of literature and religion, short of the eminence of the author 
himself." . 

Having enumerated the most considerable of the Collections of 
Biblical Critics, such as the Critici Sacri, in nine volumes folio, 
Poole's Synopsis Criticorum, in five volumes folio &c. &c.. Dr. 



OF THE REV, ADAM CLARKE LL, D., F. A. S. 353 

Clarke observes that, " Perhaps no city in the world can ooast of 
having produced, in so short a period, so many important works on 
the Sacred Writings, as the city of London ; — works which for dif- 
ficulty, utility, critical and typographical correctness, and expense, 
have never been excelled. These are, 1. The Polyglott, in six vo- 
lumes folio, begun in 1653, and finished in 1657. 2. The Critici 
Sacri, in nine volumes folio, 1660. 3. Castell's Heptaglott Lexi- 
con, compiled from the Polyglott Bible, two volumes folio, 1669. 
And 4. The Synopsis Criticorum, five volumes folio, begun in 1669 
and finished in 1674. These works were printed in Hebrew, Chaldee, 
Samaritan, Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic, Persian, Greek, and Latin, at 
the expence of a few English Divines and Noblemen, in the com- 
paratively short space of twenty years ! To complete its eminence 
in Biblical literature and to p|^ce itself at the head of all the cities 
in the universe, London has only to add a new and improved edi- 
tion of its own Polyglott." This work is still a desideratum ! for, 
the measures which the learned author, in conjunction with Mr. 
Josiah Pratt, had at that moment in contemplation, failed for want 
of support as hath been already mentioned, nor, since the Doctor's 
decease, has it again been mooted. 

After briefly m^entioning such works as Sir Norton Knatchbull's 
Observations, Hallett's Critical Notes, Bowyers Conjectures, Leigh's 
Annotations, &c. he refers to the many Lexicons and Dictionaries 
for the Hebrew Bible and Greek Testament, which, from time to 
time, have appeared, a particular account of which would exceed 
my present limits ; but he says that " Schleusner, as a lexicogra- 
pher for the New Testament, is far beyond my praise." It is due to 
Dr. Clarke to extract the following paragraph : — I have already 
apprized the reader that I did not design to give a history of com- 
mentators, but only a short sketch. This I have done, and am 
fully aware that different readers will form different opinions of its 
execution. Some will think that writers of comparatively little 
eminence are inserted, while several of acknowledged worth are 
omitted. This may be very true ; but the judicious reader will 
recollect that it is a sketch, and not a complete history that is here 
presented to his view ; and that the important and non-important 
are terms which different persona will employ in opposite senses, as 

2Z 



S54 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

they may be prejudiced in favor of different writers. I have 
given my opinion as every honest man should, with perfect defe- 
rence to the judgment of others; and shall be offended with no man 
for differing from me in any of the opinions I have expressed oit 
any of the preceding authors or their works. I could easily swell 
this list with many foreign critics ; but, as far as I know them, I do 
not in general like them — besides, they are not within the reach of 
common readers, though many of them stand, no doubt, deservedly 
high in the judgment of learned men." 

It is possible that some persons may be disposed to regard what 
the good Doctor has here said respecting his deference to the 
judgment of others as sheer affectation, or mock humility ; but to 
convince them to the contrary I shall take leave to lay before them 
a letter which he wrote at tliis particular juncture, and which, as 
serving in no ordinary degree to illustrate his character, it would be 
wrong to omit. The letter was addressed to the Rev. Joseph 
Hughes, a Baptist minister, the father of the Bible Society and 
one of its secretaries from the commencement of that excellent 
institution to the period of his death. To explain the occasion of 
the writing of the letter, it is proper to apprize the reader, that the 
Committee of the Bible Society had requested Dr. Clarke to 
furnish them with a list of such books as he considered might be 
useful to form a library for the translators in India, with which he 
complied ; and when the list was laid before the Committee it met 
their approbation, and Dr. Clarke was requested to procure the 
whole of the books. At this time it happened that Mr. Hughes 
was absent, and when he had an opportunity of casting his eye 
over the list, he objected to two of the articles, viz. Herodotus and 
Diodorus Siculus, and assigned his reasons in a note to Dr. Clarke. 
It so happened that Mr. Hughes, at the moment of writing, had 
before him Dr. Clarke's Preface to the book of Genesis, in which 
he found certain strictures on some of the distinguishing tenets of 
Calvinism, which he thought severe and unwarranted, and conse- 
quently he pointed them out to the author. The following letter is 
an answer to Mr. Hughes's note or notes : — 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 355 



" October 22, 1810. 

" Dear Sir, 

*' When I received your's concerning a passage in my Preface to 
Genesis, I was just going to answer your note ; and shall just say 
that, in the list of works necessary to be purchased for the trans- 
lators in India, which I sent to the Committee, I had inserted 
Herodotus and Diodorus .Siculus. They sent back the list to me 
by Mr. Pratt, telling me it was approved of, and requested me to 
procure all that I had recommended with as much speed as possi- 
ble. I have not attempted to purchase one book without their 
approbation. When I received your note, I sent immediately to 
Priestley and desired him to take those two works off the bill; for I 
have such a respect for your judgment, that I know few cases in 
which I would not prefer it to my own. I now take up your letter, 
which, though dated October the 11th, I only received about half 
an hour ago. I can say, in the fear of God, that I studied, in every 
part of the work in question, to avoid every expression which 
might give offence or pain to any man. 1 find I have miscarried ; 
but it certainly is not the fault of my heart. Either I have been 
misinformed, or I took it for granted, that all the Calvinists in 
England were against what we call the decree of unconditional 
reprobation; and I really thought that I should displease no 
person by simply stating what I did, and I thought I had done it 
in as mild and dispassionate a way as possible, using every writer's 
own words, without the least comment, believing this to be the most 
candid way. I have now just turned to the passage, as it stood 
originally, and must own I can see nothing uncandid in it — no 
* thrust,' no * wound,' was designed. Yet because 1 heard some 
time ago, that some Calvinists did not like it, I altered not only it 
but several other things which I thought from this specimen might 
give ofiTence, so that, you have not to wait for a second edition, 
which may never be called for, to see the passage freed from all to 
which you object, as nearly one half the copies will be found free 
from all offences of this kind, and I shall take the liberty shortly 
to send you a sheet to replace that in your's. 

" My dear Friend, permit me to say, that, when the Calvinists in 
general speak of the Methodists, they do it without ceremony ; in 



356 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS 

many cases with cruelty, and, as I have myself witnessed, in abso- 
lute hostility to truth. JMight not a Methodist, who i« far from 
wishing to make any reprisals, say, without offence, that they, hold 
certain doctrines, without stating that they are either false or un- 
just; while he lays the charge of the evils that have been pro- 
duced by polemics in religious soeiety, as much at the door of 
the opposers of these doctrines as at the door of those that 
defend them ? See the passage : — Tliis opinion (sovereign un- 
conditional reprobation) from the manner in which it has been 
defended by some and opposed by others, has tended greatly to the 
disunion of many Christians, and produced every temper but bro- 
therly kindness and charity. Here is no abuse, and surely nothing 
uncandid : — a hint, merely intended as a warning to both sides, not 
to betray the spirit and design of the Gospel, while they contended 
for what they deemed to be truth. I never wrote a controversial 
tract in my life : I have seen with great grief the provokings of 
many, and a thousand times has my heart said, 

* Semper ego auditor tantum, nunquamque repoaam 
Vexatus toties' — 
" But my love of peace, and detestation of religious disputes, in- 
duced me to keep within my shell, and never to cross the waters 
of strife, I had hoped, as I was living at least an inoffensive life, 
not without the most cordial and strenuous endeavours, in my little 
way, to do all the public and private good in my power, I might 
be permitted to drop quietly into the grave ; but this is denied me, 
not by the world, from it I expect no good, but by those who pro- 
fess to magnify the Saviour, whose glor^'^ and cause they cannot 
say I have not assisted even them to promote, while another 
body of religious people laid just claim to the principal services I 
could perform. 

" Notwithstanding all this, such is my love of peace and good 
understanding with religious people, that there is not one sentence in 
my work that I would not most cheerfully efface for ever, rather 
than it should give offence to any one follower of God, though it 
might be calculated to please a thousand of my own way of think- 
ing. I am fully satisfied that neither the truth nor the salvation 
of men can depend, even in the most remote manner, on any thing 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



357 



I have written or can write. Therefore, I am as ready to blot out 
as to write ; indeed more so. 

I have said above, that I prefer your judgment to my own ; 
ghid should I be to have the privilege of consulting it on many 
occasions : I think few cases would occur in which I should not 
most gladly follow its directions. At present I am greatly worn 
down by severe affliction, both in my own person and in my family. 
My dear wife has been apparently in the jaws of death for some time 
past : this added to my own great prostration of streng th and spirits, 
has brought me nearly to the sides of the pit. Through the mercy 
of God she appears likely to recover. As to myself, I find I must 
withdraw from public life. I have been able to do but little, and 
that little I can do no longer. Even the blessed British and Foreign 
Bible Society I shall be obliged to relinquish ; but this will be 
more my loss than that of the Society. I hope I may say that my 
heart is in every good work, though both my head and my hand 
can do but little more. 

" Begging an interest in your prayers, which I assure you I 
shall highly prize, I am, with best respects to Mrs. Hughes, my 
dear Friend, 

Yours affectionately, 

Adam Clarke." 

When the first part of the Commentary was fairly launched from 
the press. Dr. Clarke presented a copy of it to the Right Honour- 
able the Speaker of the House of Commons, and another to Lord 
Teignmouth, President of the British and Foreign Bible Society ; 
both of whom acknowledged the receipt in terms so flattering that 
the author may be excused for indulging a little vanity on the 
occasion. The former, however, very naturally took the alarm on 
finding Dr. Clarke embarked in so extensive an undertaking, and 
after thanking him for the Book, proceeds to say— Although 
your unwearied exertions in the discharge of every duty which you 
undertake, would lead me to hope that they may be able to ac- 
complish even this great work, in addition to your other engage- 
ments ; yet I cannot but be in some degree apprehensive that the 
progress of oiu' historical collection of National Records will be 



358 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS. 

necessarily retarded by so formidable a competitor, whose claims 
upon your time will not be easily satisfied." 

Lord Teignmouth also expressed himself thus : " On my arrival 
in town on Friday evening, I had the pleasure of receiving your 
present; and although I have as yet had but little time to spare, 
I could not resist the temptation of perusing the ' General Preface, 
to the book of Genesis ; ' it has afforded me gratification and in- 
struction, and I trust to derive both in a greater degree from a 
perusal of the whole w^ork : I had long ago given my name to Mr, 
Butterworth as a subscriber. 

" With the sincerest wishes for your health to enable you to com- 
plete your useful labours and praying the blessing of God upon 
them, 

I am, dear Sir, 

Your sincere humble servant, 

Teignmouth. ' 

SECTION XVI. 

Dr. Clarke's History continued from 1810 to his removal to 
Lancashire, in 1815. 

As Dr. Clarke was now fairly embarked in the business of the 
Record Commission, it is natural to suppose he would find it very 
inconvenient to reside at a distance from the British Museum ; and 
to remedy this evil he removed his residence to Harpur Street, 
Red Lion Square, towards the close of the year 1810, and from 
thence we find him dating his letters in the beginning of the follow- 
ing year. 

In May 1811, accompanied by his friend Mr. Butterworth and 
his eldest son, he set out upon a journey to his native country, 
passing through North Wales, which, in his Journal, he describes 
as an interesting country in which nature appears in all its wild- 
ness and in some of her most terrific forms. Here, says he, we 
beheld high, rugged, and precipitous mountains, on the sides of 
Avhich were vast rocks, almost pendent over our heads and apparent- 
ly threatening our destruction : the rivers also were greatly swollen, 
and torrents came tumbling down tlie high mountains, dashing into 
foam among the rocks, and running maddening through the valleys. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



359 



In the island of Anglesea our traveller recognized the seat of the 
Druids and their barbarous worship, but saw no traces of their su- 
perstitions. Some of their temples, however, still exist in a ruined 
state, but not near the high road that leads travellers through the 
island from Bangor to Holyhead. 

Dr. Clarke and his friends reached Dublin on the last day of 
May, and lost no time in repairing to Trinity College, for the 
purpose of examining various Diplomatic Papers, with the Corre- 
sponding Secretary of the Record Commission. He was very 
courteously received by Dr. Barrett, the Vice Provost and Librarian, 
who kindly promised to afford him every facility in the object of 
his journey, which was to examine the manuscripts in the College 
library. Dr. Barret shewed him, among other things, the Codex 
Rescripfus, containing a part of Matthew's Gospel, which Dr. Barrett 
had got engraved and published. It is a quarto volume of which 
the leaves are all discoloured by some chemical process, used for 
the purpose of discharging the original writing, that another might 
be transcribed in its place. 

" From all the evidences before me," says Dr. Clarke, " I drew 
the following conclusions : 1 . That the original writing was very 
old, probably of the fourth or fifth century. 2. That the parch- 
ment was originally purple, and that this was a Codex purpureus. 
3. That the letters were probably written in gold, as some remains 
seem to indicate." 

On this occasion Dr. Clarke examined also the Codex Mont- 
fortii, a manuscript of the New Testament, which contains the text 
of the " Three Heavenly Witnesses," a fac simile of which he had 
formerly taken off and got correctly engraved for insertion in his 
" Succession of Sacred Literature." The Manuscript he found to 
be written on paper, glazed after the Eastern manner, and it did 
not appear to him to be ancient. From three Greek words which 
he found at the head of one of the pages, he concluded that the 
manuscript, which was written by the same hand, was the produc- 
tion of a Franciscan friar; and from another inscription in the book 
he appears to have been named Troyhe — the writing referred to 
was — Sum Thomae dementis olim fratris Troyhe. 

While in Ireland Dr. Clarke availed himself of every opportu- 



360 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

nity of preacliing the Gospel of peace and salvation, and for this 
purpose made an excursion into the interior of the country, where 
he spent the whole month of June and until the middle of July, 
visiting Boyne — Dunleer — Dundalk — Armagh — Charlemont — 
Dungannon — Cookstown — Magherafelt and Maghera, the place of 
his nativity, where he first went to school, and where he passed 
many of his boyish days — the scene of many youthful frolics, of 
which it could not fail to revive the recollection ! On his way 
thither he and his friends went to view the celebrated scene where 
the battle of the Boyne was fought, July 1st, 1690, between James 
II. and his son-in-law the Prince of Orange, which gave the grand 
check to the popish interest, and followed as it was by the decisive 
battle of Aghrim, fought on the 12th, overthrew the Stuart dynasty, 
and terminated their reign in Great Britain. King James escaped 
to France, where he ended his ignoble career, and his family and 
court became fugitives to the great joy of the nation. 

" I felt it very interesting," says Dr. Clarke, " to see the different 
places v/here the conPucting armies manoeuvred : the spot where 
brave Duke Scomberg was killed, when fording the river: — the 
place where William was struck, when reconnoitering the Irish 
army, with a musket-ball, which took off his epaulette, but only 
grazed the skin a little on the shoulder. The army of James was 
advantageously posted on the south side of the river, and to attack 
it the British army were obliged to ford it — which made a diversion 
in favour of the foot, many of whom crossed the river a little below, 
wading nearly up to their necks, carrying their muskets, cartridges, 
&c. with extended arms above their heads. Numbers of the infantry 
passed over with the cavalry, each horseman taking a foot soldier 
behind him. To this fact the following lines, in the old song made 
on the occasion, allude, containing, as might be expected, a con- 
summate bull — 

* The horsemen they passed on before, 
And the foot came on horseback after.' " 

On the I2th of June the party reached Magherafelt, where Dr. 
Clarke entered the bounds of his original acquaintance, but after 
an absence of thirty years found things in an imperfect state. The 



OF TOE REV ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F A. » 361 

country people hearing of his arrival flocked from all quarters to 
hear him preacli, which he did in the Presbyterian Meeting-house, 
from Mark i. 14, 15, to a large and deeply attentive audience 
The following morning he proceeded to Maghera, where he had 
passed his youthful days. This was an interesting spot: he walked 
into the house where he had passed several years of his infancy* 
and found himself the subject of a number of indescribable emo- 
tions. To his great regret one half of the old house had fallen 
down : he walked into the grounds where he had often played, 
read, talked, searched for birds-nests, and caught jack-sharps, &c. 
" What a transition," says the Doctor, ''from five years to fifty! 
and how difficult to connect the habits of these two distant periods ! 
and for the grey-headed man to realize his present feelings with 
what pleased him when a child." 

Arriving at Maghera, Dr. Clarke proceeded to view the place 
where he first went to school, the sight of which brought many 
])ast scenes to his remembrance. He visited the mansion where 
Dr. Barnard, then Dean of Derry, and afterwards Bishop of Kil- 
laloe, and lastly of Limerick, formerly resided. " What a change 
is here," said the Doctor ? " Almost every part in a state of dila- 
pidation — and the house let out in tenements ! Nothing seems to 
flourish but the fine beech tree at the entrance from the road, 
which from its size and the beautiful arrangements of its widely 
extended branches, may still claim the attention of the passenger. 
After contemplating different parts of this town, formerly well 
known to me, and enquiring after its ancient inhabitants, most of 
whom I found had ceased to live among them, I returned to the 
inn, and, having dined, proceeded to Garvah on foot, a distance of 
ten English miles." 

On the 15th of June, Dr. Clarke and his friends proceeded to 
Londonderry, a fortified city, and famous for the siege it sustained 
from our King James IL in person, at the head of the Irish army 
A. D. 1689, in which it was reduced to the utmost extremity; so 
that the inhabitants were driven to the necessity of feeding on 
horses, dogs, cats, rats, mice, and every species of animal, and 
even their shoes and horses' harness. It was, however, relieved by 
a supply of provisions from England, and James was obliged t© 

3 A 



362 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE. MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



raise the siege. The walls are still entire, and several of the 
cannon, the carriages of which have long since rotted away, are 
still lying on the walls. From the inscriptions they bear, they 
appear to have been supplied by different companies of the Livery 
of London, who have still considerable property there, and by 
Avhom it was named Londonderry. Here Dr. Clarke spent the 
Lord's day (June 16th) and preached thrice — first in the Court- 
house, a large and elegant building — again, at ten o'clock — and a 
third time at six, to as many as could crowd into the place. 

On the following day, June 17th, they set off for Coleraine, 
where the Doctor found himself with the people among whom he 
received his first religious impressions. He hurried over all the 
town, and pronounces it the neatest and cleanest in all the north of 
Ireland. He found his recollections of it perfectly correct ; and 
the whole town appeared to him, in a few minutes, as familiar as if 
he had been only a few days absent: one idea gave rise to another; 
and, by association, link after link, became distinct and clear. 

On the 19th of June, Dr. Clarke went to visit the Giant's Cause- 
icaij, one of the most celebrated Basaltic formations perhaps in the 
universe. Its appearance is that of a vast pavement, of perpendi- 
cular columns, each composed of stones, some pentagons^ hexa- 
gons, heptagons, octagons, &c fitted on each other in the way of 
ball and socket, or convex and concave. What is called the 
*' Causeway" is divided into three parts, running out from the land 
into the sea. These three divisions, or causeways, run parallel to 
each other, and are separated by a small ridge of Basaltic matter, 
but not in the prisms of which the Causeway is composed. The 
hills above the shore are composed of the same materials, and the 
Basaltic pillars appear every where in their sides in a great variety 
of forms, which the common people designate the Giant's Organ, 
the Giant's Loom, &c. from some supposed resemblance assumed 
by these Basaltic columns to those instruments. 

Among the artificial curiosities of past ages, which strike the 
traveller's observation in Ireland, are the round towers, of which 
Dr. Clarke inspected several during this preaching tour, and of 
more than one of them he gave a description. The first was near 
Antrim, standing in the garden of a Mr, Clarke, who kindly 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



363 



allowed him to examine it, and furnished him with a ladder to 
ascend the first story. Its height was ninety feet, and diameter 
between fifteen and sixteen, but in the inside only nine feet clear. 
On the north it has a door about five feet high and two wide — 
standing about nine feet from the ground : and this appeared its 
chief entrance. He entered it by a ladder, and found the whole of 
this story occupied by pigeons. On the south side there were 
three of these doors, but the lowest was at least thirty feet from the 
ground. At the top, just under its pyramidal finishing, it had four 
of these doors or openings, placed opposite the four cardinal points 
of the heavens. The tower does not seem to have been raised by 
means of any scaffolding from without, but built from the inside, 
or, as bricklayers term it, overhand. For about one-third of its 
height it seems to have been built of equal thickness, but, after- 
wards, tapering gradually to the summit. There is no church near 
it, nor vestige of any religious building of any kind, though human 
bones, teeth, &c. are frequently digged up in the adjoining grounds, 
whence it is natural to infer, that there had been a burying place, 
and consequently a church-yard or some religious house, though 
long since utterly demolished. 

Conjecture is non-plussed respecting the origin and use of these 
round towers : some say they were intended for watch-towers in a 
time of war; others that they were belfries. Dr. Clarke questions 
both of these opinions : That they were not designed to be watch- 
towers, he thinks is evident from their being situated on the low- 
lands, even where there are eminences and hills at hand on which 
they might have been placed, had they been designed to serve this 
purpose. And it appears equally unlikely that they should have 
served for belfries, the apertures not being adapted to emit the sound 
to any distance. The Doctor's opinion is, that they were raised 
for the purpose of admitting the watch or crier to announce the 
hour of the night, and summon persons in all directions to repair, 
at the hour of prayer, to the worship of God — the probability of 
which is strengthened by the circumstance of their being built near 
some church, abbey, or religious house — proved by the bones found 
near them. Such is Dr. Clarke's opinion — but on the other hand 
it must strike a reflecting mind as remarkable that if such were their 



^64f IMEMOIRS or THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRIT1AG8, 

use none of these places of worship should have escaped the ravages 
of time. The Doctor found another of these round towers at Mins- 
ter Boyce, corresponding with the one he had seen at Antrim : and 
near this were the remains of some large and extensive edifices long- 
since perished. Here he met with three of the finest crosses he ever 
beheld, and very finely ornamented. A third of these towers pre- 
sented itself to view as the party journeyed towards Dublin. 

At a place called Swords' says Dr. Clarke, " about seven miles 
from that city, I went to inspect another round tower, and found 
the remarks on the preceding ones equally apply to it. There are 
here the ruins of an extensive Monastery, out of one part of which 
there is a church formed; there are also the remains of a castle, 
which in former times was doubtless of considerable repute. I was 
much struck with the appearance of several new graves in the church- 
yard, rudely ornamented with crosses, garlands, curiously cut pa- 
per, &c., &c., and interspersed with flowers, aromatic herbs, myrtle, 
&c. I believe these were tokens of aflfectionate regard to young 
women and children. The rude blasts were scattering these proofs 
of love-after-death ; and the flowers and herbs, like the cheeks of 
the once lovely deceased, were faded and withered, to blush and 
smile no more. One grave was adorned in this way far beyond all 
the others. A frozen-hearted-formalist may condemn all this and 
call it superstition : true religion and pure affection would give it a 
far different name. I felt affected and edified by these dumb re- 
membrances of life, youth, beauty, and affection of death, disap- 
pointed hopes, broken bonds, keen sorrow, and lasting distress. I 
felt, and could have wept, with the disconsolate parents and sur- 
vivors; and kissed the fingers that composed those garlands, the 
tokens of pure affection ; and the crosses by which the meritorious 
death of our most blessed Saviour was held out to public view as 
the only foundation of the survivor's hope that death, the last enemy, 
should be finally destroyed ; and that those hearts, knit togeth-er 
here in pure and honest love, should be re-united in eternity, where 
bonds can no more be broken, and death can never enter." 

The Conference was held at Dublin, about the middle of July, 
and Dr. Clarke presided as matter of course. When over, July 
17tl], it was proposed by some of his friends that they should visit 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S, SC)5 

the Catholic College at Maynooth, of which we have heard much 
in this country. Having arrived there, the party alighted at the 
inn ; and while standing in the street, just opposite they saw a 
troop of horse entering the town, escorting a chaise ; some prece- 
ding, some fbllowmg, and others riding on each side the chaise : they 
went to the spot and enquired what was the matter. The answer 
was, " These soldiers are escorting the terrible Gibbon, one of the 
rebel generals, who has been lately taken after having been out- 
lawed for thirteen years." A police officer was with him in the 
chaise, and he soon alighted, heavily shackled both on the legs and 
hands — wretchedly clothed. By fiavourof the landlady, Dr. Clarke 
and his friends got into the room, where the prisoner and his 
guard were. He walked frantically to and fro in the room, 
dragging his long bolts after him, and talked very wildly, at one 
time cursing the king, at another awfully obtesting his incapa- 
bility of being a traitor. He desired one of the soldiers to go and get 
him a pipe of tobacco, which was done and brought to him lighted. 
He took it, and, putting it into his mouth, said, " Now I shall 
smoke the King's health, and if his health were in the pipe, by the 
holy Father, I would smoke it out." His language and appear- 
ance were awful. He had been several times in France ; and had 
hid himself in the bogs and mountains of Ireland, by which means 
he had so long escaped. So terrific and appalling was he, that no 
one durst approach him, and he was at last taken while sleeping in 
a dry ditch, having a loaded blunderbuss, and six brace of loaded 
pistols about him. 

Dr. Clarke thus describes the Maynooth College : " It is a fine 
plain building, and costs the British government £9,000 a year 
for its support. The students, three hundred in number, were 
absent, it being vacation time. Father de la Hogue, one of the 
professors, received and treated us very politely. One wing of the 
college is three hundred and thirty feet in length, divided in each 
of its stories into thirty-three rooms, ten feet long, for the students : 
the library is not a very good one, and the chapel not elegant. On 
coming away I offered my hand to father De la Hogue, but he 
declined receiving it ; he had treated us with the utmost civility 



366 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

and politeness, but I was a Heretic, and therefore he would not 
give me the right hand of fellowship ! " 

Dr. Clarke returned to London towards the end of the month of 
July, when he found a letter from Bristol communicating the pain- 
ful tidings of the death of his mother. This was a heavy stroke 
and affected him much, for his mother's image was always dear to 
his heart and memory ; her sayings and maxims often guided and 
influenced his conduct and opinions through life : her strict con- 
scientiousness, her abhorrence of every kind of deceit ; and, above 
all, the sacred precepts she on all occasions inculcated on the minds 
of her children, that " the eye of God was every moment on them," 
was a check felt throughout life, and was powerfully operative in 
hours of temptation, as well as its balm of consolation in seasons of 
distress and heaviness. 

Dr. Clarke was at this time deeply engaged in bringing out his 
great work— the Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, of which 
Part I. on the book of Genesis had been some months before the 
public, and given rise to no small portion of animadversion and 
critical remark. In particular, what he had said concerning the 
" Serpent which beguiled Eve," Gen. iii. gave ample scope for both 
criticism and hyper-criticism. The Hebrew word " Nachash," 
which in the authorized Version is rendered " Serpent," Dr. Clarke 
contends " that it is at least very probable, was neither the serpent, 
nor any kind of serpentine genus, but rather a creature of the ape, 
or satyrus kind — such as the Oran-outang ! " It is due to the 
Doctor, however, to say that he was far from dogmatizing on the 
point. On the contrary, he says, If any person should choose to 
differ from the opinion which I have stated he is at perfect liberty 
to do so : I make it no article of faith, nor of Christian communion. 
I crave the same liberty to judge for myself that I give to others — 
to which every man has an indisputable right ; and I hope no man 
will call me a heretic for departing in this respect from the common 
opinion, which appears to me to be so embarrassed as to be alto- 
gether unintelligible." The hypothesis gave rise to a great diver- 
sity of remark ; and while it amused many by its singularity, not 
to say whimsicalness — it was treated by others with banter and 



OF THE REV, ADAM CLARKE, LL.D., F.A.S. 



367 



ridicule : an example of tlie latter appeared in one of the public 
prints, and ran thus : 

Lines on the Nachash of Dr. Adam Clarke. 

The Rev. Dr. Adam Clarke asserts. 
It could not be a Serpent tempted Eve, 
But a gay monkey, whose fine mimic arts 
And fopperies were most likely to deceive. 

Dogmatic commentators still hold out, 
A Serpent, not a monkey, tempted madam ; 
And which shall we believe ? — without a doubt, 
None knows so well what tempted Eve, as Adam. 

(Signed) R. R. 

Lake of Letter-Kenny. 

About the end of the year, 1811, Dr. Clarke proceeded to Cam- 
bridge in pursuit of materials for the improvement of Rymer's 
Fcedera and the Record Commission ; and while there he had the 
opportunity of attending a branch meeting of the British and Foreign 
Bible Society, which interested him much. Lord Hardwicke took 
the chair, supported by Lord Francis Osborne, the Dean of Carlisle, 
and several of the professors and others of the University. The meet- 
ing lasted from eleven to four o'clock, and such speeches. Dr. Clarke 
declared, he never before heard. The Rev. John Owen, one of the 
Secretaries, who had gone thither for the purpose of organizing 
this Auxiliary Society, excelled his former self : Mr. Dealtry spoke 
like an angel of the first order: and Dr. Daniel Edward Clarke 
the celebrated traveller, like a seraph. Every man seemed to vow 
that he would carry the Bible to all who never knew it, as far as 
the Providence of God should permit him to go, and thus act up to 
his precept, in publishing " Glory to God in the highest, and peace 
and good will among men." 

The following letter, written to the Rev. Thomas Roberts of 
Bristol, under date of January 23rd, 1812, gives us an interesting 
view of Dr. Clarke's literary occupations at that juncture. 



368 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

My very dear friend and brother : 

" Most heartily do I thank you for your kind notice of one who 
has loved you long, and loves you still as much as most friends you 
have, or can have upon earth. To hear of your happiness will ever 
increase mine ; and I can say that I never hear of your sorrows 
w-ithout sympathy. 

" We are, through mercy, in a measure of health. I go ou 
fagging at my almost endless work, as usual. Deuteronomy is 
almost finished : they have the last sheet at press. Of Joshua, 
fifteen chapters are ready to go to press ; I think I must join both 
these books together in one part. At the conclusion of Deutero- 
nomy you will find a variety of highly useful and curious tables, 
which cost me not a little trouble. I have also inserted a Disser- 
tation on the Pentateuch, of my own composing, and another on 
the character of Moses: bat as I was confined for room in both 
cases, I could not make them what I wished. Joshua's sun and 
moon standing still kept me going for nearly three weeks. That 
one chapter has afforded me more vexation than any thing I ever 
met with. And even now I am but half satisfied with my ov.n 
solution of all the difiiculties, though I am confident I have 
removed mountains that were never touched before. Shall I say 
that I am heartily weary of my work ; — so weary that I have a 
thousand times wished I had never written one page of it, and am 
repeatedly purposing to give it up. No man should undertake 
such a work alone ; and I have no soul to help me. 

" Yours, most affectionately, 

" Adam Clarke." 

In the month of April, 1812, Dr. Clarke again visited Cam- 
bridge, for the purpose of examining the contents of the different 
libraries, especially the University library, and those of Corpus 
Christi, and Magdalene, for state papers, for the use of the Record 
Commission. On this occasion he undertook to collate the allego- 
rical poem, called King Hart, written by the famous Gaicin 
Douglas, bishop of Dunkeld, and brother to the Earl of Angus. 
This he did at the request of Lord Glenbervie, and he found it one 
of the most difficult things he ever attempted. The poem is in 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. 1)., F. A. S. 369 

what is called " The folio Maitland MS." and so ill written, in a 
very bad hand, and withal the ink so pale, that in many places it 
was scarcely legible, and required such attention as almost dis- 
tracted him. Mr. Pinkerton, who copied and printed it in his first 
volume of " Ancient Scottish Poems," has made many mistakes 
and arbitrary alterations, though he is entitled to great praise for 
what he has done. The original writer also committed many mis- 
takes and blunders, leaving out some whole lines. Dr. Clarke 
pronounces it a beautiful, correct, and well-supported allegory. 
The thought struck him while engaged upon it— that John Bunyan 
seems to have borrowed his Pilgrim's Progress from Bernard's Isle 
of Man — Bernard, his Isle of Man from Fletcher's Purple Island 
— Fletcher took his plan from Spencer's Fairy Queen — Spencer, 
his Fairy Queen from Gawin Douglas's King Hart — and Douglas, 
his plan from the old mysteries and moralities which prevailed in 
and before his time. 

" This curious poem," says Dr. Clarke, " as it exists in the 
Maitland MS. which I have carefully collated, appears to have 
been ill-preserved in some sooty cabin, where it has been exposed 
to wet which has rendered much of the writing almost illegible. 
Mr. Pinkerton has introduced a new personage into the Prosepo- 
peia, which neither appears in the place it now occupies, nor 
in any other in the original poem. In the MS. there is neither 
preface nor argument, nor is it divided into cantos — these are all 
of Mr. Pinkerton's own adding. There is also a line omitted in 
the MS. but what it was, who can tell ? Mr. Pinkerton has, how- 
ever, made one to supply the place ; but if he has made some 
mistakes, it is not to be wondered at ; few men in England could 
even have assisted him in the work ; and perhaps not one in the 
kingdom could have copied it with a tenth part of his accuracy. 
I have collated the whole of this poem with the original, word for 
word, and generally letter for letter, so that I hope the collation 
may now be considered as complete." 

This collation of the poem of King Hart, Dr. Clarke copied and 
sent to Lord Glenbervie, on his return from Cambridge. His 
lordship claimed to be a descendant of the famous Gawin Douglas, 
and of course to him the collocation possessed peculiar interest. 

3B 



370 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

His lordship was one of the Lords Commissioners on the Public 
Records, and always retained towards Dr. Clarke a high degree of 
esteem and regard, which is testified in his numerous letters to 
him. 

While engaged in his work at Corpus Christi College, Dr. 
Clarke met with a MS. of the thirteenth century, entitled De 
Mirahilihus Britanniae, in which, among other things, the writer 
mentions Stone-Henge, and the manner in which the stones are 
poised upon each other, corresponding with their present actual 
state. He also mentions the White Horse, near Devizes, which is 
made on the side of a hill, on which no grass grows ; this also 
continues to the present day : and, by this MS., we know that that 
figure of a hopse has lasted at least five hundred years ! 

Having finished his examinations at Cambridge, Dr. Clarke set 
out, on June 9th, 1812, on a second trip to Ireland, to prosecute 
further researches under the Record Commission. Passing through 
Liverpool, he stopped there several days among his old friends, 
and preached repeatedly to large congregations. On the I4th, 
they set sail, and had a tempestuous night; one of their masts was 
split, and the breeze blew stiff, quite against them ; however, 
through a merciful Providence, they reached Dublin in safety, 
where Dr. Clarke was greeted by many friends. 

During his abode in Ireland, at this time, Dr. Clarke visited 
Minster Boyce, a second time, and examined it more minutely. 
He then proceeded to Drogheda, where, by permission of the 
Mayor, he preached in the New Market, a very large and spacious 
square to about a thousand people, among whom were some 
Clergymen, three catholic priests, and the chief inhabitants of the 
place. On the following day he returned to Dublin, attended the 
sittings of Conference, despatched his other business, and on the 16th 
July, sailed from Dublin to Holyhead on his return homewards, and 
arrived in London on the 26th. About ten days afterwards he 
proceeded to Oxford, for the purpose of collecting papers for the 
Foedera, by desire of his Majesty's Commissioners, and having de- 
livered to the Rev. Mr. Gaisford, Regius Professor of Greek in 
Christ church college, the Speaker's letter, he was very politely 
received, and promised every assistance in examining the Bodleian 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL.D., F. A. S. 



library, of which that gentleman was curator. One of the highest 
gratifications which Dr. Clarke experienced on this occasion was 
in his being permitted to dine, and to sit on the same seat and eat 
at the same table, where Charles Wesley, Student of this College, 
often sat and dined. For several days Dr. Clarke spent from nine 
in the morning to three in the afternoon in the Bodleian, collating 
the transcript of the Boldon Book with two Manuscripts in that 
library ; one among those of Archbishop Laud ; the other among 
those of Rowlinson. The work he found to be tedious, exhausting, 
and perplexing ; the various readings being numerous, and of very 
great consequence in a work of that kind. 

Whilst Dr. Clarke was thus intently prosecuting the business of 
the Record Commission, his Commentary on the Bible was ad- 
vancing joanjaos^w. The fourth part of that work, which brought it 
down to the end of Joshua, and completed the first volume, made 
its appearance in the summer of the year 1812, but it is evident he 
began most sensibly to feel that he was inadequate to the discharge 
of the many and laborious engagements which pressed upon him. 
He still continued to discharge his ministerial functions, preaching 
once on the sabbath and visiting the sick ; answering all letters as 
soon as he received them, that they might not accumulate, and none 
be overlooked, however simple their claims to attention, provided 
their inquiries were such as entitled them to an answer. Who can 
wonder that thus immersed in business he sighed lor retirement, 
and longed to quit the metropolis, where, he well knew, it could 
not be obtained. Writing to the Secretary to the Record Com- 
mission under date of December 2nd, 1812, he says, 

" I feel now that I am inundated with work, and really cannot 
tell what to do, or at least what (among a variety of things to be 
done) should be done first." And then follows a list of six diffe- 
rent projects, all relating to the improvement of the Foedera, the 
first item of which was " An examination of fifteen thousand 
instruments in the reign of Henry III. Edward I. &c. in the 
Tower ! " The second, " The full examination of the chests of 
perishing treaties &c. in the Chapter House, which do not appear 
to have been noticed by Rymer." After proceeding in this way to 
a frightful extent, he adds, " I rec^uest you to say, which, of all the 



372 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MIMSTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

measures now remaining to be executed, I should execute first. 
I own I now feel myself fairly distracted, and almost discouraged. 
No person can work without time and means ; sometimes I seem 
destitute of both," 

That Dr. Clarke's health should suffer material y under these 
numerous and important engagements can be no cause of wonder. 
He sig-hed for quiet, and besought his friends to get him out of 
London, and away from all its huiTving concerns. They judged 
that he could not be spared from the active post at which he was 
placed ; for while there he not only could work well, but he prose- 
cuted it without intermission while the responsibility was upon him, 
never trusting his duties to another when it was within his own 
power to perform them. He still retained his connection with the 
Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the meetings 
of which were very frequent, and the work connected with them 
arduous. During a short absence from home in the summer of 
1815, he thus wrote to Mrs. Clarke : — 

" My friends, my dear Mary, will not find a place for me where 
I may have some comfortable rest ; they think I cannot be spared 
from London and from the turmoil of public life ; but I feel that 
matters are come to this issue — if I do not at once get away from 
many of my avocations, I shall soon be incapable of prosecuting 
any ; I must hide my head in the country, or it will shortly be 
hidden in the grave." 

This is truly affecting, but such is the selishness of mankind 
in general, that they have no bowels of compassion for those who 
serve them. If Dr. Clarke's avocations called him from home, he 
must gratify his friends by incessant preachings, when worn-out 
nature demanded relaxation and rest. Of the truth of this remark 
he gives a fine exemplification in the following paragraph. Being 
in Ireland on the business of the Record Commission, he visited 
Lisbume: " Though I had been almost totally exhausted," says he, 
" with my yesterday's work, yet they insisted on my preaching at 
Lisburne (on Monday) at eleven, as it was their quarterly meeting. 
In Tain I urged and expostulated. They said, * surely yoa came 
out to preach, and why should you not preach at every oppor- 
tunity ^ I must have rest.' Surely you can rest after preach- 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 373 

iiig.' I replied, * I must preach to-morrow at Lurgan, and shall 
have but little time to rest.' ' Oh ! the more you preach the more 
sU'ength 5'ou will get.' ' I came out for the sake of health and 
rest.' * Oh ! rest when you return home.' * I cannot rest at home 
as I have got more work to do there than I can manage.' ' Then/ 
said they, ' you shall get rest in the grave.' I give this specimen 
of the inconsiderateness and unfeelingness of many religious people, 
who care little how soon their ministers are worn-out, because they 
find their excessive labours comfortable to their own minds ; and 
should the preacher die, through his extraordinary exertions, they 
have this consolation, ' God can soon raise up another.' Though 
not convinced by this reasoning, I nevertheless preached to a very 
crowded congregation." 

It has been seen in a former Section that Dr. Clarke had to 
tender his resignation no less than three times to the Commis- 
sioners of the Record concern, before they could be prevailed on to 
accept it. The case was much the same with the Committee of 
the British and Foreign Bible Society, as the following letter from 
the Rev. John Owen, one of the secretaries, and written at the 
desire of the Committee of that Society, will show.' They had 
heard of his fixed determination to retire altogether into the 
country, and their regret is thus feelingly expressed. 

" Fulham, Apnl 22, 1815. 

" My Dear Sir, 

" I am instructed by the Committee of the British and Foreign 
Bible Society, to express their deep concern at the intimation you 
threw out on Monday last, — an intimation too strongly corrobo- 
rated by general report, of your intention to retire from the metro- 
polis, and thereby to withdraw from the Society the continuance of 
those services which you have hitherto rendered them in adminis- 
tering the affairs of the Institution. On the extent and the value 
of those services it would be superfluous in me to expatiate or 
insist: they are of a nature so distikct from any which others 
among us have performed, or are able to perform, that you cannot 
be insensible to their great utility, however your modesty may 
restrain you from allowing them the estimation they deserve. 



374) MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

" But permit me, my dear Sir, to observe, that the case which I 
am instructed to urge upon your consideration, is one wherein 
your personal humility, the greatest indeed, and most honourable 
of endowments, must be subordinated to a just appreciation of 
those literary acquirements, which fit you so eminently for the 
service of God in promoting the correct publication of his Word. 

" I need scarcely acquaint you that there is a department in the 
business of our Committee which no one but yourself is competent 
to direct. In that department we can work with you, or rather 
under you, but we can do nothing without you. Reflect on the 
Arabic, the Ethiopic, the Abyssinian, and the Syriac; in all which 
languages we stand pledged to the world for something which has 
not yet been executed ; and then ask your own heart what you 
think we shall be able to accomplish in either if you should 
resolve to abandon us. I say nothing of the assistance which we 
have been in the habit of receiving in all our transactions, both 
literary and mechanical, from your general knowledge of business, 
and particularly from your extensive acquaintance with the prac- 
tical details of typography. 

" A slight examination of the minutes of our printing and mis- 
cellaneous committees, w^ould show how much tlie ordinary con- 
cerns of the Society have profited by your exertions, and how ill 
we can afford to spare you from the lowest department of its services. 

" I am aware I am using a liberty for which I ought to apolo- 
gise. It is not I know, for the British and Foreign Bible Society 
to interfere with those arrangements which you may judge it 
expedient to make in disposing of yourself and family ; but having 
witnessed and anticipated their regret on the occasion to which I 
have referred, and been charged with expressing it in terms as 
strong as decorum would allow ; I have felt it my duty to speak in 
such a manner as to leave no doubt on your mind, how great im- 
portance the Committee attach to your continuance among us, and 
with how much pain they contemplate the possibility of your 
removal. 

" I am, dear Sir, 

" Your's, feithfuHy, 

" John Owen.' 



OF THE REV ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. ,9. 



375 



It would be unjust to the memory of Dr. Clarke to withhold, in 
this place, the answer which he returned to this kind and interest- 
ing letter. The British and Foreign Bible Society was an object 
ever dear to his heart, and he never spake of it, in any of his letters, 
but in rapturous strains, calling it that " blessed" institution. To 
further its progress and promote its interests by every means in his 
power, was indeed his " meat and his drink But, let ub hear 
himself. 

'* Rev. and Dear Sir, 

" After having, as far as I could, transacted the Society's busi- 
ness, in ultimately settling the mode of proceeding with the Syriac, 
as I informed you in my letter last evening, I come now to my 
own business in answer to the very kind letter which you have 
written by desire of the Committee. 

" It is certainly an honour to me that I have been at all able, 
in any respect, to help on so good a work; and the estimation in 
which the Committee has held my endeavours could not but be 
gratifying. Pleasing as this may be, I neither sought nor expected 
it. I was, I believe, actuated by the same mind that has invaria- 
bly ruled in the Committee, which never had but one object in view 
— to glorify God by doing good to men ; and that God has ap- 
proved of their work, the result demonstrates, as a most extraor- 
dinary blessing has rested on all their labours. Through this es- 
pecial blessing of God, the institution is in such a state of prospe- 
rity, that we may fairly suppose, that, as notliing but the hand of 
the Almighty could have reared it, so nothing but that Hand can 
demolish it. 

" I can contemplate and anticipate your future success. You 
have now sailed round the world, and well know how to work your 
vessel in every kind of sea. Your enemies have been serviceable ; 
and they have been the means of preserving you from rocks, shoals, 
and quicksands. Thus the wrath of man has praised God ; aad 
if there was a remainder which might have been injurious to the 
institution, that has God restrained. The Society has nothing but 
God to fear, and that very fear will be the means of its preserva- 
tion and success. 



376 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



" But on this Bible business I am apt to forget myself ; and 
have strangely so done in the present instance, having merely sat 
down to return you and the Committee my best thanks for this 
strong expression of your kind regards ; and to assure you, that I 
have had, in common with yourselves, my reward in my labour. 

" As to my continuance in the work, however grateful this has 
been to my feelings, a variety of causes combine to direct my way, 
and that of my family, from the Metropolis. To specify these is 
unnecessary : they exist, and they are imperious, and that is enough. 
Though distance will prevent my hands from being employed in 
your behalf, yet my prayers shall not be hindered ; they shall be 
frequent and fervent at the Throne of Grace, for your support and 
success : nor shall my mind be wholly precluded from some share 
in your very high gratifications. 

" Though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the 
spirit, joying and beholding your order and the steadfastness of 
your faith in Christ." 

I Your most sincerely, 

" Adam Clarke." 

Every candid mind will readily admit that these letters place the 
character of Dr. Adam Clarke in an elevated point of view — pre-emi- 
nent in learning, and in labours more abundant ; remarkable for his 
zeal in promoting the interests of his fellow-creatures, both temporal 
and spiritual, — and entitled to the highest honour for his noble dis- 
interestedness. His superior in all these respects we in vain look 
for — and his equal in any of them is not easily found. So useful 
and valuable a life deserved to be nourished and cherished by every 
possible means : and the experience which he had of London amply 
justified him in his determination to retire from its bustle and noise. 
His health was rapidly giving way under his accumulated, and con- 
stantly accumulating, engagements and labours, and it became ap- 
parent that he must, in order to preserve life, retire from many of 
its pursuits. Though in preaching he was obliged to relax, owing 
to the severe spasmodic attacks from which he frequently suffered 
after speaking in a crowded chapel, and then immediately exposing 
himself to night air j while he remained in London he saw no pos- 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. T>., F A. S. 377 

sibility of escaping from his too many and too severe avocations. 
The Wesleyan Mission claimed a considerable portion of his time 
and attention from the period of Dr. Coke's decease. During that 
gentleman's life, he stood prominently forward in the conducting of 
this department, and for many years laboriously exerted himself in 
behalf of the religious instruction of the heathen, and especially of 
the Negro population in the West Indies. At an advanced period 
of life Dr. Coke embarked in a voyage to the island of Ceylon, ac- 
companied by six young, intelligent, and zealous missionaries, when 
he was seized with illness on board the vessel that was conveying 
them thither, and in a few days it terminated his life. From this time, 
it was found expedient, in order to extend the Missions, to generalize 
the plan, and accomplish by multiplied agents, what had previously 
almost entirely been committed to the management of Dr. Coke. 
From henceforth the Wesleyan Missionary Society began to shoot 
out its branches in all directions under the excellent superintendence 
of Mr. Richard Watson, who for many years filled the office of 
Secretary with distinguished ability ; and by his brilliant speeches, 
eloquent sermons, and luminous reports, powerfully seconded the 
interests of the various Missions. 

On the 1st of December, 1814, a meeting of the friends of the 
Wesleyan Missions was held, for the first time, in the City-road 
Chapel, on which occasion Dr. Clarke took the chair, and delivered 
an address, which he was requested to publish ; and it accordingly 
appeared under the title of " A Short Account of the Introduc- 
tion of the Gospel into the British Isles ; and the obligation of Bri- 
tons to make known its salvation to every nation of the earth : in 
an Address delivered at the formation of the Missionary Society, 
among the people called Methodist*." 



3C 



378 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, IV'INfSTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

SECTION XVI. 

Dr. Clarke takes ?fp Ids residence ctt MiUhrook, m Lancashire. — 
Makes a tour through part of Scotland and Ireland. — Receives 
under his care and tuition tico Priests of Budhoo, young men from 
the Island of Ceylon. — Repeats his visit to Irehmd. — And makes 
an excursion into Lincolnshire, &c., &c., a.d. 1815 — 21. 

The period at length arrived for which Dr. Clarke had earnestly 
longed — and certainly it was " a consummation devoutly to be 
wished" — when he should get exonerated froVn some portion, at 
least, of the burden which pressed so heavily upon him, and which 
scarcely any human strength was adequate to sustain. The man 
who has only one head, one pair of hands, and one pair of legs, 
must necessarily be limited in his exertions, and whatever his know- 
ledge and attainments may be, however capacious his intellect, or 
expansive his benevolence, he cannot be in two places at one and 
the same time, nor can he do two things at once, and do them well. 

In the year 1815, the Providence of God paved the way for his 
removal from London to a country residence, a few miles distant 
from Liverpool, which from local circumstances and situation he 
named Millhrook, to which place he took his family in the month 
of September. 

The circumstances attending this part of the Doctor's History, 
have been the subject of some little controversy between the family 
and certain of their friends ; but the truth of the following facts 
seems to be ascertained by the discussions that have taken place in 
the Christian Advocate newspaper. 

Mr. Jonas Nuttall, a successful printer and publisher in Liverpool, 
who had been for many years well acquainted with Dr. Clarke and 
was very desirous of serving him, had purchased an estate, which 
he thought might form an eligible residence for his estimable friend, 
whither he might retire from the hurry and bustle ever incident to 
the Metropolis, and in the bosom of his family prosecute his lite- 
rary labours without molestation, recruiting, also, his health and 
spirits with the salubrity of a country air. It seems probable that 
Mr. Nuttall offered this estate to Dr. Clarke for the money ii cost 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F, A. S, 379 



him ; and to tempt him to remove his residence into his own neigh- 
bourhood, Mr. Nuttall, with a liberality that did him credit, offered 
to deduct a thousand pounds from the purchase money. And as a 
further inducement to accept the offer, Mr. Henry Fisher, the pre- 
sent proprietor of the Caxton Printing Office, then a partner with 
Mr. Nuttall, handsomely gave £300 more towards the purchase.* 
Deducting these two liberal donations, the sum which Dr. Clarke 
paid for the estate was two thousand five hundred pounds. During 
the ten years that he resided at it, there can be no question that 
great improvements were made by its owner, both in the cultivation 
of the land, and beautifying the Mansion, to which he gave the name 
of Millbrook ; but that it was a very advantageous bargain for Dr. 
Clarke needs no other proof than a simple statement of the fact ; 
that after occupying it for ten years, he sold the estate, on leaving 
it in 1824, for five thousand four hundred pounds. 

Being now seated about midway between Liverpool and Man- 
chester, the Conference appointed him to the latter circuit, but with 
the privilege of preaching there only once a month — generally filling 
up the other Sabbath mornings, either by preaching in Liverpool, 
or in one of the Wesleyan chapels contiguous to his own home, seve- 
ral of which were within the distance of two or three miles. This 
however, being too distant for the regular attendance of his own 
family, and the population around Millbrook being mostly Roman 
Catholics, he had a place of worship erected on his own grounds, 
and it was supplied by Methodist preachers at times when he him- 
self was absent. At first only a few Protestant colliers and their 
families attended ; and these, with his own family, the village 

* Indeed it is due to Mr. Fisher to say, that he was, not only in this instance, 
but in many others, a liberal and munificent patron of Dr. Clarke, more espe- 
cially while the latter resided at Millbrook. For in addition to what is above 
mentioned, he sent his two sons to be educated by the Doctor, allowing him 
a handsome sum of ^200 per annum for their board and tuition. This, 
however, liberal as it was, formed only a small part of the pecuniary advan- 
tages which Dr. Clarke derived from his connection with Messrs- Nuttall and 
Fisher. They employed him to edit several works which issued from their 
press, 9.nd for which they paid him like princes ! In fact, were an amount 
of the sums stated, which the Doctor received from that house at different 
times, it would startle some pereons and surprise the public. 



380 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

school-mistress, shoemaker, and blacksmith, formex^ tlie congre- 
gation at Millbrook. 

In this quiet retreat Dr. Clarke not only breathed pure air, but 
he engaged himself in agricultural pursuits which had a most 
beneficial effect upon his constitution. He had now a farm under 
his management and superintendence ; and watching over his 
young plantations, and making agricultural experiments, he in 
some measure lived over again the scenes of his youth. In these 
occupations he found sufficient amusement to relax his mind, and 
in them he took a lively interest. He was always an early riser, 
and took great pleasure in feeding the poultry, and supplying the 
wants of other hungry claimants, from the barn door fowl to the 
cattle that drew the team, or supplied the family with milk and 
butter. 

To the poor of the neighbourhood he was religiously attentive ; 
he furnished them with Bibles and Testaments, and instituted a 
Sunday school which was conducted by the members of his own 
family. Their number, male and female, averaged from sixty to 
seventy, and these were taught to read, and instructed in the first 
principles of Christianity — the naked or ill-clad were clothed and 
made comfortable, either through his own munificence or the libe- 
rality of others. Of these Sunday scholars many were the children 
of Roman Catholic parents ; and these, as soon as the morning 
school closed, returned home, while the Protestant children re- 
mained during the time of public worship, assembling again in the 
afternoon which was entirely devoted to their instruction, which 
could not but prove beneficial to them. 

The commencement of the year 1816, was unusually severe, 
owing to a long and intense frost, during which many hundreds of 
sailors were thrown upon the benevolence and compassion of the 
inhabitants of Liverpool. Their case was taken up by the principal 
nferchants and trades-people there, and much was done to relieve 
them ; but their numbers made it a matter of extreme difiiculty to 
provide shelter and lood for them. Dr. Clarke on being made 
acquainted with their situation, resolved on lending his relief to these 
perishing strangers. He had some cottages untenanted, and into 
these he put a quantity of straw and blankets. He then sent into 



or THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



381 



i.iverpool inviting twenty of these poor fellows to come to Millbrook, 
where he found them employment during the day-time, in mending 
the roads about his house ; and at set hours they assembled in his 
kitchen to their meals, one always remaining in-doors to cook for 
the rest — a task which they took alternately, as agreed in the 
morning among themselves. In this way he supported them for 
a period of three weeks until a change of wind and weather enabled 
them once more to put to sea 

About midsummer of this year, 1816, Dr. Clarke, accompanied 
by his friend Mr. Henry Fisher, and Mr. Thomas Jones, of London, 
stationer, made a tour through part of Scotland and Ireland, which 
does not appear to have occupied them more than about three 
weeks. Their route was through Lancaster, Burton, Kendal, the 
Lakes, Keswick, Penrith, Carlisle, " Gretna Green, where young 
English fools who disgracefully elope from their parents and guard- 
ians, and at a considerable expense, go, in order to be, what they 

term, married" Dumfries, the birth-place of Robert Burns, 

the Scottish poet — Castle Douglas, where, says the Doctor, " I saw 
a family of young mendicants, nearly half naked ; they were five 
in number, three girls and two boys. The eldest girl was about 
eighteen, and the next twelve years of age ; the first was a real 
beauty, the second little inferior, — the whole a lovely family : had 
they been at Millbrook, I would have served them by removing 
them from temptation and ruin." 

" June 20th. — We set off for Newton Douglas, and passed along 
the bay of Wigton, which is one of the most beautiful I have seen, 
but the country is poor and barren ; yet here and there you will 
meet with a cultivated spot; for, to the honour of the Scottish 
gentry, they spend the money which they receive from their de- 
pendants and tenantry, among those from whom they get it. Were 
this same ground in Ireland, it would be a perfect desert, as the 
Irish gentry, to their eternal disgrace, spend all the money they 
receive in the kingdom, in places of public resort in England &c." 

Proceeding to Portpatrick, they embarked for Donaghadee, and 
thenc;e to Belfast, where Dr. Clarke preached twice on the same 
day in the large Methodist chapel to very attentive congregations. 
The party now hired a jaunting car at half a guinea per day: but 



382 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

their driver was so wretchedly clothed, that they had to provide him 
with a change of raiment before they could think of proceeding with 
him. They now set off for Carrickfergus — thence to Lame, a strag- 
gling, low-built, despicable place. Here Dr. Clarke was put into a 
damp bed, but happily discovered it in time to escape the baneful 
effects ! They proceeded to Glenarm, a delightful place, the resi- 
dence of lady Antrim — the inn where they changed horses was as 
neat and clean as any seen in England — every thing was to be had 
in great perfection and very cheap — which the Doctor attributed 
to the influence which the residence of a genteel or noble family 
invariably has upon a whole neighbourhood. 

Their next stage was Cushiondall, where all the party narrowly 
escaped poisoning. The facts are thus related by Dr. Clarke him- 
self : " While our horses were baiting at a poor inn, though the 
best the place afforded, we asked for some refreshment, but 
scarcely any thing could be procured. On desiring some wine, the 
landlord told us he had none bottled, but he had some good 
draught. We requested him to bring us half a pint to taste it; it was 
brought, and, on trying it, I observed to my companions it had a 
different taste to any thing I had ever known. They both, on 
tasting it, bore the same testimony. We called the waiter, and 
desired her to warm it with some sugar and nutmeg. She 
soon returned with it, but it was still so unpalatable, that I could 
not take more than half a wine glassfull. Each of them took a 
full glass. We proceeded on our journey, and were all soon taken 
ill. My companions complained of giddiness and sickness at the 
stomach, resembling, as they termed it, sea-sickness. My head 
was but slightly affected, but I was seized with a bowel complaint. 
On coming to our next stage, my companions were too ill to pro- 
ceed further ; they both began to be exceedingly sick, and con- 
tinued sick for several hours. This circumstance probably saved 
their lives ; but, owing to my not having taken so much of the per- 
nicious fluid, the poison stole into my system, instead of producing 
sickness — but we were all sorely ill." 

Dr. Clarke was now once more approximating the land of his 
nativity. From Cushiondall the party proceeded on their way to 
Coleraine. " W^e spent a few hours at Port-Stuart," says he. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. U F. A. S. 383 

where I saw many of my old friends. At a little village near 
this place, called Biirnside, I visited the Old Barn, where, for the 
first time, I heard a Methodist preacher: — the house in which my 
father had for several years resided ; — and the field where, after 
earnestly wrestling with God for mercy, I found His peace, after 
having endured a great fight of affliction, and sore distress of soul. 
These places are all interesting to me, and in making this record, I 
am m some measure recording the mercy and loving-kindness of 
the Lord to myself; I visited the house of a Mr. Patterson, a family 
who had, in my childhood, shewn me paternal affection ; but all, 
except one member of the family, are dead, and the house itself is 
in comparative desolation. As I gazed, I remembered the words 
of the Persian poet, Kosroo — ' I walked by the churchyard and 
w^ept, to think how many of my friends were numbered with the 
dead ; with a throbbing heart, I asked. Where are they ? And 
Fate in a mournful accent re-echoed. Where are they ?' 

" June 29. — We left Coleraine and proceeded to Garvagh, 
where, having bespoke dinner, we went on to a place called Grove; 
and leaving our chaise on the side of the road, we ran across the 
field, to a place where I had lived from my tenth year. The house 
is partly fallen down, and the rest is in a most miserable state. It 
is inhabited by a family wretchedly poor. I observed several 
changes had taken place in the neighbouring grounds. Having 
made this poor family happy by giving them a little silver, I pro- 
ceeded to see the school where I had my classical education. 
Formerly it was situated on the skirt of a wood, and commanded a 
fine prospect of the neighbouring fields ; and the boys who could 
be trusted, were permitted in the summer to go out among the 
trees to learn their lessons. In this wood I read the Pastorals and 
Georgics of Virgil ; and had almost every scene of these inimitable 
poems exhibited to my view from this spot. With no common 
safisfaction do I recollect the several rural scenes which my author 
described, and which, at the same time, I saw exemplified in active 
life. But, what a change is now here ! the beautiful wood is en- 
tirely cut down ; not even the brambles are left. Sheep, goats, 
and larger cattle, no longer browse on the adjoining hills ; and the 
fields are rudely cultivated, and the school-house itself is become 



384 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

the habitation of two poor families. I searched about to find, if 
possible, some of my old school-fellows and class-mates, forty 
years ago. Some of them had been bred up for the church, some 
for the law, and some for the practice of physic : a few I found now 
old men, who, by various providences, had been disappointed in 
their views of secular establishments, and reduced to the cultivation 
of their paternal soil. Having been much younger than any of 
these, they had lost all recollection of my person, though I could 
perfectly recognize their features ; as, from their age, when my 
school-fellows, all the characteristic marks of their countenances 
had become determined, fixed, and permanent. While thus going 
over the scenes of my boyhood, and observing the ravages time 
had made among persons and things, my mind was alternately 
affected with pleasing sensations and melancholy gloom ; but, as 
the objects which produced the agreeable emotions were all either 
gone, or essentially changed, the melancholy predominated, and 
at last became the sole feeling. On the whole I received little 
pleasure from this visit, and returned to Garvagh : and having 
dined, set off for Maghera, where, as in 1811, I stopped to visit the 
places of my earliest infancy, and where I learned my alphabet. 
Now, persons, houses, trees, enclosures, &c. are running rapidly to 
decay ! and here the tooth of time has been peculiarly destructive : 
Economy and industry have not been exerted to counteract its 
influence, and consequently, that influence has been ample and 
extensive. 1 witnessed several things here which tended to deepen 
the gloom which the former objects had diffused ; besides, I was 
not well ; so I rode to Magherafelt, revolving in my mind a multi- 
tude of ideas, produced in various assemblages, none of which 
tended to relieve the pressure on my spirits." 

In the spring of 1817, Dr. Clarke had occasion to make some 
alterations in his house at Millbrook, when an accident occurred 
which greatly endangered his own life, as well as the lives of his 
whole family. In making a sough to take oflf the water from the 
buttery, the enlire wall of the breakfast room over it gave way, and 
for several yards fell in : the old part of the house separated a con- 
siderable space from the new part, and the drawing-room and 
dining-room were split from top to bottom. Expecting the whole 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., T. A. 3. 



385 



building to fall into ruins momentarily, with great difficulty the 
f males were removed out of the house, together with every living 
thing. Dr. Clarke, who was present and perceived the danger* 
was constant in warning the workmen; for he perceived they were 
digging away the foundation, without supporting the superstruc- 
ture by suitable props; but they disregarded his warning, and 
nothing could make them listen till they had nearly lost their own 
lives. When the catastrophe came, they were all consternation 
and dismay — the bricklayer excepted, " they were like a rope of 
sand." Props, however, were procured, and at the imminent risk 
of his own life, the Doctor had to direct where every prop should 
be placed, and regulate the whole manner of proceeding for pre- 
venting the total destruction of the whole building. Happily he 
retained great calmness and self-possession during the whole scene. 
They dared not to go into any room to save the property, not 
knowing but the motion, or the least additional weight, might 
bring down the whole. The Lord mercifully interposed for their 
deliverance, and put a song of praise into their mouths : the build- 
ing stood until the foundation was restored. 

Dr. Clarke came up to town to attend the Anniversary Meetings 
of the Wesley an Missionary Society, in May 1818, when he preached 
two of the sermons in aid of the funds of that institution. While on 
the platform, during the meeting convened for delivering the Re- 
port, he was presented with a letter from Sir Alexander Johnstone, 
who was then within sight of land on his return from the island of 
Ceylon, requesting an interview with as little delay as possible, 
which took place on the following day. Sir Alexander now in- 
formed him that he had brought with him two High Priests of Bud- 
hoo, who had left their country and their friends, and put themselves 
before the mast, exposing themselves to all kinds of privations, in 
order that they might come to England to be instructed in the prin- 
ciples of Christianity. To put their sincerity to the test, Sir Alex- 
ander Johnstone had, during the voyage, kept them in the meanest 
place, and at the greatest distance from himself, though he had paid 
their passage. 

Dr. Clarke thus dcs3ribed these two Singhalese youths, at the time 
of their first arrival in England : " Munhi Rathana is twenty-seven 

3 D 



386 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISITY, AND WRITINGS, 

years of age, and has been high-priest eight years ; but he was 
educated, as was also the other, from their youth for the priesthood. 
Dherma Rama is twenty-five years old, and has been between six 
and seven years in the priesthood : they are cousin-germans, and 
are about five feet six inches in height — in complexion, quite black. 
They have fine eyes, particularly the eldest ; regular features, and 
the younger has a remarkably fine nose. There is a gentleness 
and an intelligence in their faces which has greatly impressed me in 
their favour : in short they are lovely youths, for whom I already 
feel deeply interested. Their hair, which is beginning to grow, (for 
as priests they are always shaven) is jet black: their clothing is 
imposing in appearance — it consists of three parts ; first, a sort of 
tunic of brocade, with gold and silver flowers ; second, upon this 
they have something like an oflicer s sash, which goes round their 
waist ; and third, over the whole, they have a yellow garment. 
They have no kind of hat or cap ; and their garments are thrown 
loosely over the left shoulder, so that, in general, not only the head 
but also the neck, breast, and right arm are entirely bare. They 
have now European shoes and stockings, in order to preserve their 
feet: one of them has a sort of screen made of silk to which there is 
a large massive handle of turned ivory, nearly eighteen inches long : 
this, as High Priest, he used in the Temple before his face, while 
performing the recitations from their sacred books. They eat spar- 
ingly, but refuse nothing set before them of solid food : they take 
no kind of fluid but milk or water." 

How they came to know any thing of the Wesleyan Methodist 
Missionary Society is not explained ; but it was probably through 
the medium of some of their Missionaries stationed in Ceylon. But 
they were recommended to the Committee, who prevailed on Dr. 
Clarke to take charge of them, and afford them all the instructions 
he could* in the knowledge of divine things. It would have been 
gratifying to know that previous to their leaving home they had heard 
the Gospel, and that it had entered their understanding through 
divine illumination, and produced some salutary and saving eflfects 
upon their hearts, so as to afford evidence of a work of Grace; other- 
wise their coming to England for education seems a very strange affair. 
Every Christian must know that the saung knowledge of Christ is 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLAKKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



387 



not to be learned like logic or rhetoric or any human science ; it 
is known only through divine, supernatural, teaching. " The natU' 
ral man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he 
know them because they are spiritually discerned." An apostle 
may plant the seed, and an evangelist may water it, but unless the 
Lord open the heart and so give the word an entrance into the un- 
derstanding — unless HE who at first commanded the light to shine 
out of darkness shine into the mind, and so give the light of the 
knowledge of the glory of God as it shines in the face of Christ — 
the sinner will remain in nature's darkness, even under the best 
possible human tuition ! " Unless a man be born again he cannot 
see, or enter into the kingdom of God :" and this new birth, or re- 
generation, is not of man, nor of the will of man, but wholly and 
solely of God. He, of his own sovereign will begets men to the 
faith by means of the word of truth ; causing them to understand 
and believe and obey the Gospel, as the reader may see by consult- 
ing the texts below.* But this is a digression ; from which I return. 

When the Anniversary Missionary meetings were over. Dr. Clarke 
proceeded with his sable pupils, not to Millbrook, in Lancashire, 
but to Bristol, where he was engaged to preach in behalf of the 
Missions. 

When they reached Bristol, they naturally enough concluded 
they were at their journey's end, especially on seeing Dr. Clarke 
so cordially received by his friends; and were sorely disappointed 
•when they were told they had two hundred miles farther to travel 
However, they reached the place of their destination in due time 
and commenced their course of study. 

The account that is given of the manner in which they were 
affected by the appearance of frost and snow is very amusing. 
They had been told in their own country that water could be con- 

* John i. 13. ch. iii. .3, 5. James i. 18. Acts xvi. 14. 2 Cor. iii. 18. I am 
aware that it comports with Dr. Clarke's creed, to suppose that God gives a 
measure of grace to every intelligent human being, whether they have ever 
heard of Christ and his sjilvation or not — a sentiment founded on a mistaken 
view o-f John i. 9. — and that their salvation depends on the use they make of 
this grace ; but that is a wrong plnn of doctrine, as it were easy to show, were 
this the proper place for doing it. 



MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



gealed into a solid body, but they regarded this and all such 
accounts as idle fictions, or tales of the marvellous; but when 
assured that they were matters of fact, and that they would be able 
to stand on the surface of the large fish- pond before Dr. Clarke's 
house, they almost grew impatient for the time to come when the 
thing should be realized. It so happened that during the first 
winter they were in England the first snow fell during the night, 
and it fell in abundance : their bed-room looked into the garden^ 
and when they rose in the morning and drew up the blind to look 
out, they were petrified with surprise and astonishment, at behold- 
ing a white world before them. They ran into the study quite 
amazed, and from thence proceeded with Dr. Clarke into the garden, 
to take a closer survey of this wonderful phenomenon. They took 
it in their hands, trod it under their feet, and were enchanted with 
its dissolving particles. In this way surprise yielded to pleasure* 
and it was found difficult to refrain them from exposing their un- 
inured bodies to the severities of an English winter. Presently the 
fish-pond was so completely frozen over, that they had an oppor- 
tunity of witnessing what they long wished to behold — viz. " Solid 
water." Its surface, however, was so smooth that they still had 
their fears and doubts. To remove these. Dr. Clarke got on it, 
and walked to the middle of the pond ! They still hesitated ; for 
it occurred to them that this might be owing to the Doctor's faith, 
and therefore, though it supported him, it did not follow that it 
would support others, and it was not till they saw the other members 
of the family, males and females, follow his example that they would 
be convinced. One youth in the family then put on a pair of skates, 
and when he began to pass over the surface with a celerity equal 
to flying, and they yet found that he was every where in contact 
with theice, their doubts gave place to ecstasy : they ventured on the 
" solid water" themselves, not less delighted than amazed. They 
would then have a piece of it, which, on account of its thicknes, 
was not easily procured; and were not contented till they had 
melted it by the heat of the fire, and so reduced it to its own na- 
tural state. They were thus instructed and delighted and benefited 
by what fell under their observation and experience. 

They were young men of an inquisitive turn of mind, taking a 



vr rUE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL, D., F. A. S. 389 

lively interest in all matters of science, and manifesting a remark- 
ably quick apprehension. Dr. Clarke gave them lectures on 
Natural Philosophy, the subjects of which he illustrated by ex- 
periments, and simplified them to the utmost of his ability. On all 
such occasions their joy was extreme. At first they looked to as- 
certain the fact and then burst out into a rapturous exclamation of 
applause, testifying that their understandings were instructed as 
well as their senses gratified, Munhi discovered considerable taste 
for the study of history and jurisprudence, in which he made some 
progress ; and on every occasion they thirsted for knowledge, and 
were always grateful for its communication. 

There cannot be a doubt that Dr. Clarke entered upon the task 
of educating these young men with all the kindness of heart for 
which he was distinguished, and which was so necessary for its due 
discharge ; but he probably was not fully aware of the difiiculties, 
solicitudes, and labours of the task, when he first engaged in it. 
He had not only to instruct them in the right way, but he had also 
to obviate prejudices, and combat the former opinions and false 
learning of the Priests of Budhoo. In whatever regarded the 
Christian doctrine they are said to have been wholly uninstructed, 
but they were teachable, and listened to their instructor with fixed 
attention while he poured into their minds the truths of revelation. 
The history of the Redeemers suflTerings, and above all his death 
upon the cross, arrested their attention in a remarkable manner ; 
they would have it repeatedly read over to them, and it frequently 
drew tears from their eyes. To them, indeed, " Great was the mys" 
tery of godliness ; God manifest in the flesh." They continued 
with Dr. Clarke two years, in the state of Catechumens, and pre- 
vious to their leaving England they applied to be admitted, by 
baptism, into the Christian church, which took place, on Sunday, 
March 12th, 1820, at Brunswick chapel, Liverpool, in the presence 
of a large congregation of interested and deeply affected persons — 
the rite, probably that of sprinkling, was performed by the Doctor 
in person 

During the time they were under Dr. Clarke's care atMillbrook, 
Sir Alexander Johnstone, who brought them to this country, paid 



390 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, ^KD WRITINGS, 

them a visit, accompanied by lady Johnstone, both of whom ex- 
pressed their highest satisfaction at the progress they were making 
in learning and knowledge under their amiable and eminent in- 
structor, and which they expressed their confidence would ultimately 
turn out to be of essential advantage to their countrymen on their 
return to Ceylon. The elder of the young men translated into the 
Singhalese language a piece of poetry on the emancipation of slaves, 
written by Mrs. Hannah More, at the request of Sir Alexander 
Johnstone who was much delighted with it, and presented it to 
Mrs. Moore ; he also begged to be favoured with another copy for 
himself which he proposed to forward to the island of Ceylon. 

We may easily imagine that the arrival of these two Budhist 
priests in England and their residence under Dr. Clarke's roof, 
would become a popular topic of conversation, especially in the 
neighbourhood of Millbrook, and would excite great curiosity to 
see them ; which was certainly the case. Among others the Earl 
of Derby and his Countess, who, during the summer season, gene- 
rally took up their abode at Knowsley Hall, in the immediate vici- 
nity of Millbrook, were of that number. In the beginning of Au- 
gust, 1819, these noble personages sent a message to Dr. Clarke, 
stating, that if agreeable they would wait upon him, for the purpose 
of inviting him to Knowsley Hall. He accordingly fixed the next 
day at twelve o'clock, when they came, thirteen in number, all of the 
nobility. The Doctor and Mrs. Clarke received them as became their 
quality and his own character. Being introduced they commenced 
a variety of questions about the state of the Methodist Missions — ■ 
what success attended them — the two priests, of whom they had 
heard — their motives in coming to England — the progress they had 
made in the knowledge of Christianity — their object on their return, 
&c., &c., to all which questions Dr. Clarke returned suitable an- 
swers, with which they were both interested and delighted. The 
Countess — once the celebrated Miss Farren, the actress, and than 
whom no one better knew how to play her part — was particularly 
inquisitive, asked a variety of questions, and made such observations 
as indicated a mind highly cultivated and informed. The two 
young foreigners were introduced and acquitted themselves so as 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 39l 

to give general satisfaction. The party continued at Millbrook 
about three hours, and, on leaving, declared that " they had never 
spent a morning more to their satisfaction." 

While Dr. Clarke was shewing his noble visitants some of his rare 
and curious manuscripts, the Countess took occasion to say, " Dr. 
Clarke, I am delighted with these ; but there is one thing of which 
I have heard, which I do not see here." " Of what," said Dr. 
Clarke, " does your ladyship enquire — " A Sermon published by 
yourself on Salvation by Faith ; for a copy of which I shall feel 
highly obliged." The Doctor presented her ladyship with it and 
also his sermon on the Love of God, both of which she received 
jnost courteously. 

About three weeks afterwards, the Earl and Countess called agaiA 
privately, for the purpose of ascertaining whether they might have 
the pleasure of introducing, at a convenient opportunity. Lord Dart- 
mouth and some other friends who were then at Knowsley, to which 
the Doctor readily consented, and on the following day, the party 
came, so numerous as to fill his house. Besides the Derby family 
and Lord Dartmouth, there were the two ladies Legge, Lady Essex, 
Bootle Wilbraham, Esq. M. P. and his lady, with several others 
whose namea could not be catched. On this occasion, also, the 
Singhalese young men were introduced as an object of curiosity, 
and they acquitted themselves so very well as to excite great inte- 
rest and afford a high gratification. Mr. Bootle Wilbraham and his 
intelligent lady were particular in all their enquiries, and received 
such answers as appeared to please and gratify them not a little. 
All seemed to think that their coming over was a singular and re- 
markable Providence, which might possibly lead to much good, and 
expressed their high satisfaction that these interesting strangers had 
been placed under Dr. Clarke's care. 

The following anecdote respecting these two Singhalese youths 
is too good to be omitted. Dr. Clarke had promised that he would 
make each of them a present of a copy of his Commentary, then in 
a course of publication, with which they seemed greatly pleased ; 
because, they said, it would enable them to meet and combat the 
objections of Mohammedans, Brahmins, and their own priests. One 
evening Dr. Clarke received a note from Robert Sherborne, Esq. 



392 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MIMSTHY, AND WRITINGS, 

Director of the great Plate-Glass-Manufactory at Ravenhead, near 
St. Helens, (the gentleman who had introduced Lord and Lady 
Derby to Mill brook) accompanied by a present to the two young 
priests, of two fine plates for toilette glasses, each seventeen inches 
long, by fifteen wide. The young men received them, enquired 
about the silvering, admired the workmanship ; but seemed to take 
no other interest in them : they were both silent, and ap])eared 
very pensive. Dr. Clarke pressed the subject on their notice, and 
spoke of the kindness and attention of Mr. Sherborne who had fre- 
quently visited them. At length one of them broke silence and 
explained the sentiments of both. " We are obliged to Mr. Sher- 
borne," said they, " but we will not accept them. We came to 
England without money, without goods, without clothes, except 
our Priests' garments ; we will take nothing back with us but one 
coat a-piece, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the books you have 
promised us. No, God being our helper, we will take no presents, 
and carry nothing from England except what covers us, your Bible, 
and the Gospel of Jesus Christ." It was in vain that Dr. Clarke 
told them they might receive a present without the slightest impu- 
tation on their disinterestedness. " No," said they, " we will re- 
ceive nothing but the Gospel of Christ and Dr. Clarke had to 
return the two elegant plates, with an explanatory letter to the 
Donor. 

About May 1820, it was resolved that the Singhalese priests 
should return to their own country, and Sir Richard Ottley being 
about to sail to Ceylon in the capacity of Judge, it was thought 
advisable that these young men should take advantage of the 
opportunity of his company to return home. Accordingly Doctor 
and Mrs. Clarke accompanied them to town, after taking a melan- 
choly leave of Millbrook, and being solemnly recommended to the 
care and guardianship of their heavenly Father by Dr. Clarke, in 
solemn prayer. Lord Bathurst was at that time at the head of the 
Colonial department, and, on their being transferred to his official 
custody, his Secretary, Mr. Henry Goulburn, at his lordship's request 
gave particular instructions to have them taken proper care of during 
the voyage; and that they should receive every accommodation that 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A, S. 3.93 

could be afforded them. In his letter, Mr. Goulburn thus expresses 
himself. 

** Lord Bathurst so strongly feels the advantage which the 
Singhalese inhabitants of Ceylon may derive from the instruction 
of any of their countrymen in the Christian faith, by giving a wider 
range to the dissemination among them of the true religion, that 
he is more than commonly anxious to recommend these young men 
to your protection ; and should Sir R. Ottley be able, on his arrival, 
to assure you that their conduct during the voyage has not disap- 
pointed the expectations which their previous character has led 
Lord Bathurst to form, he has desired me to express his wish that 
they may receive every encouragement, which you will, I am sure, 
under those circumstances, consider them entitled to." 

Having taken their passage and gone on board, the ship dropped 
down the river, and coming to anchor, as usual at Deal, on the 
22nd of May, the younger of the two priests, addressed a letter to 
Dr. Clarke which discovers such admirable traits of character that 
it deserves publicity : thus he wrote : 

*' My dear Father, 

" I did write to you a letter at Gravesend — I thought that my 
last ; but now I got time, I write you a few lines more, because 
I know you very glad to hear how we get on. Our ship did put 
anchor here two days ago, but I cannot hear from you — but in a 
few months I hope you will send me a pleasant letter to be happy 
to my heart, and I constantly pray to God for you live long, and 
be all Sort of happiness to you. Dear Sir, believe me I will work 
hard : I intend to do ten years work in five years, and after that 
five years, if you live, then I will come and see you ; and if you 
be in Glory before that my coming, then I will not come to England 
but I will come to see you in glory, Amen. 

*' God be with you, and with your family, because when I rejoice, 
you was rejoice with me ; when I did laugh, then you did laugh the 
same with me ; when I question you, you did answer me for all ; 
for these your grand glorious manner, I could not keep myself, 
because so heavy when I had to leave you. 

" Sir, I will try to be Englishman long as 1 live, and if any try 

3E 



394 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRmNQS, 

to make me Singhalese man, that I not like. — Give my love to all ; 
now we are going : Farewell ; God bless yon and your family : 

Your very humble Servant, 

" Alexander Dherma Rama." 

I must not take leave of the narrative of these Budhist Priests, 
without subjoining the following letter, from the eldest of them, 
to Dr. Clarke, written after their safe arrival in Ceylon. 

Colombo, Dec. 19, 1820. 

My dear Father : 

Here I am, comfortable and happy ; however I will tell you 

my good generally. Since we sailed from England, we have every 
Sunday read prayers, and sometimes had a sermon ; every morning 
and evening we have met in Sir Richard Ottley's cabin to read the 
Bible and pray, indeed, sometimes, bless God, some of the other 
passengers have joined. We have three Sundays had the Lord's 
Supper, indeed my mind sometimes rejoice concerning my soul. 

" Every day Judge Ottley order us to go to him for our improve- 
ment ; indeed by his teaching we have got great knowledge — also 
he is very kind to us. Your book teaches us great knowledge : he 
talks to us out of it, and my mind is greatly satisfied with him all 
the time. I now better understand what you wrote to us in your 
little book [Clavis Biblica)* and I am now sorrowful in my mind, 
when I read your excellent .teaching, seeing my great danger of 
everlasting death, but I have often after reading, much satisfaction 
in my mind : you have done great kindness to me, and I feel much 
as 1 can for your sake. 

" On the 30th of October we arrived at Colombo : the Governor 

very kind to me, and put me under the Rev. Dr. S , who 

came from England, colonial chaplain. With him I study Christian 

* A Tract written by Dr. Adam Clarke for the instruction of the Singhalese 
priests, and subsequently published under the title of ** Clavis Biblica, or a 
Compendium of Scriptural Knowledge ; containing a General View of the 
Contents of the Old and New Testaments ; the Principles of Christianity de- 
rived from them, and the Reasons on which they are founded: with Directions 
how to read most profitably the Holy Scriptures. Originally drawn up for 
the instruction of two High Priests of Budhoo, from the Island of Ceylon." 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 395 

religion, and I hope in a very short time I will be able to preach 
the Salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ. When I was with you, 
I told you I wish to have some power to preach the Gospel to 
Heathen people; my wish I thank God, He has done for me, 
and I have exceeding happiness in receiving this great blessing, and 
in seeing my welfare in this respect. My dear father, I will never 
forget you ; you cut me some of your hair, and when I think of 
you I take it in my hand, and seeing that, my mind is full of 
sorrow, wanting you. Hereafter, I hope you send me your like- 
ness : what you have done for me makes me feel highly ; and my 
daily prayer is for you and your family. 

'* I am, dear Sir, 

Your obedient Servant, 

" Adam Munhi Rat'hana." 

It has been inaccurately stated that these two qumdam Budhist 
priests, on returning to the island of Ceylon, gave up their Chris- 
tian profession, and resumed the functions of Teerunanxies, or high 
priests of that island; but the report is without foundation. Neither 
of them ever returned to Paganism, or ever entered an idol temple 
again. On the contrary, their religious and moral character is 
said to have been without a stain. One of them was raised to the 
office of magistrate, and the other a licensed teacher under the 
Church establishment.* 

In the year 1821, Dr. Clarke paid another visit to Ireland, 
accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. John Forshaw, of Liverpool ; Joseph 
Carne, Esq. of Penzance ; and his second son, Theodoret Clarke. 
The party sailed from Liverpool on the 31st of May. The passage 
across the channel was far from being a pleasant one, arising from 
the filthiness of the packet and the disagreeable company ; but they 
got into Dunleary Bay on the following morning, where they 
landed, and proceeded to Dunleary to be further annoyed by surly 
Custom-house officers, who tore all their packages to pieces, and 
minutely examined their very slippers and shaving apparatus! 
But, dismissed from this inquisition, they hired a light covered 

• Sec tlic Christian Advocate for September 10, 1832. 



396 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

waggon, drawn by two horses, into which twelve of the passengers 
were packed, with their luggage, and in about an hour they got 
safe to Dublin, where they were affectionately received. 

On the 3d of June, Dr. Clarke opened a new Wesleyan Meeting, 
situate in Lower Abbey Street, and which probably was among the 
reasons of his visiting Ireland at this time. It is described as a 
commodious and fine building, and was crowded to excess with 
nobility, gentry, and others, who gave him a collection after the 
sermon, amounting to one hundred and forty pounds. On the 
following day the party set off for Belfast, where they only stopped 
one night, and to get lodged at all, they were obliged to separate 
into three divisions — the Doctor himself being accommodated in a 
three-bedded top room, all of which beds were occupied. 

As some of the company wished to see the Giant's Causeway, 
they determined to gratify their curiosity, and accordingly pro- 
ceeded by sea, round what is called Plaiskin, by which means they 
had a full and pleasing view of all the Basaltic columns which 
face and form that highly interesting promontory. The causeway 
they aflenvards examined by land, and found Basaltic trigons and 
enneagons — three-sided and nine-sided columns. The following 
naorning they took a boat round Fair Head, " the most astonishing 
promontory," says Dr. Clarke, " I ever beheld : it is faced by the 
most gigantic and tremendous Basaltic columns, which arise to the 
height of five hundred feet above the level of the sea ; neither pen 
nor pencil can trace this case : it must be seen, and that too from 
the sea, to be properly esteemed and admired, and unless the spec- 
tator row close by the land, a great part of the effect is lost. When 
under these columns, and close in by the shore, they exhibit the 
liighest example of the sublime and the terrible. Many of the 
columns are fallen down, and this, within a short space of time, 
and many more, will follow their predecessors : and much must 
have fallen, which the sea now covers. I returned from this 
spectacle, with a mind deeply impressed with the majesty and 
power of the Supreme God." 

There is something very pleasing in the following narrative, 
which I give in Dr. Clarke's own words : — " In the way, to-day, 
from Ballycastle to Coleraine, a journey of sixteen miles, we 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S 



397 



stopped at a village called Moss-side, to feed our horses ; as there 
was no stable in the place, we fed the horses in the street. Curio- 
sity led me to step into one of the cabins — it was a small one, 
where I saw nine persons, chieflj^ young women, spinning, and one 
reeling the produce of their labour. There was a bed in the place, 
in which a young lad lay of about fourteen years of age, who had 
received a hurt in his ancle several weeks before, and was still con- 
fined to bed. On asking them if they all belonged to one family? 
I was answered, * No.' One, who spoke for the rest, said, ' We are 
only neighbours of this poor woman ; her son has got a hurt several 
weeks ago, by which he has been rendered unable to work ; our 
neighbour being distressed, and getting behind-hand (that is, in- 
capable of maintaining herself and family,) we have agreed to give 
her a day's work.' They were all spinning as hard as they could, 
in order to make the utmost possible profit for the poor family by 
the day's work. There was not one of the nine, who did not her- 
self appear to be in the most abject poverty, and they now con- 
ioined their labours to relieve one who was only more miserable 
than themselves. This was the finest specimen of philanthropy I 
had ever witnessed ! I had admired the ruins of Dunluce castle — 
the wonders of the Giant's Causeway — the impressive appearance 
of Plaiskin — and the sublime grandeur of Fair Head ; but all these 
were lost in the scene now before me : these were the wonders of 
the God of Nature — these the works of the God of Humanity 
and Mercy. And to witness this sight — the poor labouring for, 
and in order to relieve the poor, and those to whose poverty was 
added affliction, read me a lesson of deep instruction: all was 
voluntary, all was done cheerfully ; and as the day was dedicated to 
the relief of deep distress, they endeavoured to make the most of 
their charity, by labouring with all their might. Myself and com- 
panions said, * Verily, these shall not lose their reward :' We there- 
fore gave them each a piece of silver, equal to double what they 
could have obtained by their day's labour at home. We gave 
some also to the poor woman herself, and to several others who 
came in to see the strangers from another country ; reaping our- 
selves tenfold advantage in the high satisfaction we had in viewing 



MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

this delightful scene of humanity, in the most diligent exercise fof 
the relief of distress and misery." 

It would be tedious to attend on this travelling party throughout 
their whole excursion ; but it gave rise to various reflections in the 
mind of Dr. Clarke, some of a cheerful and many of a gloomy 
nature. The first of these was, to see the women every where in a 
state of great degradation, the peasantry of this sex almost uni- 
versally bare-legged and bare-footed, without caps, hats, or bonnets, 
with a thin short jacket, or bed-gown, and one short petticoat ; 
and even in this slender clothing, emplowed in the severest labours 
of husbandry, digging in the stony fields, with the long spade, 
which they trod with the bare-foot. Through the county of 
Antrim, especially near the co£ist, he could not but observe that the 
women were surprisingly well formed, and graceful in their motions, 
particularly when walking. And, notwithstanding their exposure 
to the air, their complexion was in general fine, and their whole 
deportment exhibited an indescribable natu ral elegance, unassumed 
and unafiected. Their chief personal draw-back is their feet, 
which are very broad, owmg to their going bare-foot. The foot 
is there in its natural state, for the purpose of laying firm hold on 
the ground, and enabling them to walk steadily, or to spring from 
place to place when necessary : the toes are long and spreading. 

Dr. Clarke tells us that the men are well enough clothed for 
their circumstances, being all well shod, and with a sort of sur- 
coat, which, when on, covers them to the calf of the leg. Of all such 
coverings and defence the women are mostly destitute, while work- 
ing in the same fields, and at precisely the same labour, as their 
fathers and husbands. Surely that man would be furthering the 
cause of humanity who would excite the tone of public feeling to 
examine and remedy this appalling evil. The peasantry without 
scarcely any kind of advantages are well-bred, and their civility 
partakes of a politeness which is rarely witnessed in England, 
among those who occupy far superior situations in life, and have had 
the advantages of a much better education. In illustration oi this 
remark Dr. Clarke mentions, that one day himself and his five com- 
panions took shelter in a poor cabin, to enter which they had to 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE. LL.D., F.A.S. 



399 



stoop considerably. On apologising for their intrusions the peasant 
immediately replied : " Gentlemen, you are heartily welcome ; I 
wish I could accommodate you as you require, but you are wel- 
come to the best that I have." The manner in which this was ex- 
pressed — the grace of the body and stretched- out hand and arm, 
while the words were uttered — and the openness of the countenance, 
while at the same time an indescribable pleasure looked out at the 
eye, gave our travellers the highest assurance that they were really 
welcome ; and that they were considered not as receiving, but as 
conferring obligation. 

It is necessary however to apprize the reader that it is of the Pro- 
testant inhabitants of the north of Ireland, that Dr. Clarke predi- 
cates these pleasing traits of character : the simple inhabitants of 
that Protestant part of the country appear universally happy 
and cheerful : they know no better state, and envy has not been per- 
mitted to taint the sweets of their contentment. But, alas ! widely 
different indeed is the scene exhibited in those parts that are under the 
influence of Popery !* Here the land is ill-cultivated, hedges and 
fences universally neglected, the inhabitants worse clothed, worse 
fed, discontented, gloomy, and suspicious. But, unfetter their minds, 
educate their youth, and they will soon arise from their present 
degraded state, and assume their native character; for they are 
radically the same men, and worthy of a better creed and a better 
fate. 

The Irish, Dr. Clarke tells us, as far as his observations have 
extended, are utterly averse to improvement in every thing relating 
to domestic economy. They build houses, and for want of proper 
repair, permit them to fall into ruin ; they will suffer the rain 
to fall upon their very beds, rather than put themselves to the 
trouble of mending the thatch. When a window is broken, they 
thrust in a rag, or a wisp of straw ; when farther broken, they put 
up a slate, or thin stone against the aperture ; when farther broken 

* Dr. Clarke resumes this topic on a subsequent occasion, as the reader will 
presently find, and furnishes a more detailed account of the misery and wretch- 
edness which Popery has inflicted on the Irish people, as particularly exempli- 
fied in the inhabitants of the southern part of the island — the neighbourhood 
of Cork. Sec the next Section. 



400 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



Still, they supply the place of the glass with mason work ; and thui 
they proceed till often not one vestige of the window remains. 

Dr. Clarke sums up his estimate of the Irish character and man- 
ners in these words : " I have remarked this procedure of indo- 
lence and carelessness in all its stages. I have seen the windows in 
the process of gradual abolition : and in perhaps a thousand cases, 
I have seen the whole window blocked up and this even in cabins, 
and where there was no taxation, and the window was essentially 
necessary both to the light and comfort of the inhabitants. It is 
the same with the house itself: if the wall be shaken it is scarcely 
ever repaired, and the ruin proceeds, till at length the house falls: 
hence there are more ruins of houses in Ireland than perhaps in any 
country in the world. The same reprehensible spirit appears in 
their clothing ; there is no " stitch in time to save nine." But not- 
withstanding all these things, it is impossible not to esteem and love 
this people : their frankness, simplicity, cheerfulness, good nature, 
friendly disposition, unparalleled hospitality, and enduring patience 
under privations of various kinds ; together with their love of learn- 
ing, or rather their desire to learn; and their hunger after literary 
information, render them amiable in the sight of all who have any 
intercourse or connection with them. 

* Ireland, with all thy faults, I love thee still !' " 

We cannot hesitate to subscribe to the truth and justness of what 
is here said of the Irish people : it is substantiated by the concur- 
rent testimony of so many and competent witnesses that scepticism 
itself will scarcely venture to doubt it. And may we not indulge 
a hope that the evils which have so long and so grievously afflicted 
that fine country are in a state of amelioration. Dr. Clarke wrote his 
account of the country a dozen years ago ; it is gratifying to recollect 
what has been done, with a view to its improvement, during the inter- 
val, both by the British Govermentin the way of legal enactment, and 
also by private liberality and munificence. The repeal of the penal 
laws against the Catholics, and restoring them to their just rights 
as citizens and fellow-subjects, has removed one crying grievance, 
and healed a deadlv wound. Since that boon was granted, and 



OF THE REY. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 401 

he present administration came into office, several other important 
measures for the relief of the country have been carried into effect : 
among which are " a Bill for consolidating and amending the laws 
relative to Jurors and Juries in Ireland,"-— also — " The Subletting 
Act,"— the " Civil Courts Bill,"— the " Post Office Bill,"— The vir- 
tual abolition of Tithes, and Church Reform, during the last Ses- 
sion — these are all measures of momentous interest, and must in a 
little time be productive of most salutai-y effects ; and when to all 
these we take into consideration that " the schoolmaster is abroad," 
in that benighted country, acting too under the sanction of the 
" Irish Education Bill," assisted by various benevolent societies 
formed in England and supported by the voluntary contributions 
of the religious public — we hail the day as rapidly approaching 
when long neglected and grievously oppressed Ireland shall loose 
herself from the dust, shake off her shackles, and rise into liberty 
and life. 

Dr. Clarke returned to Lancashire about the middle of June, 
when he set himself in good earnest to prosecute his great under- 
taking, the Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, which he now 
began to be very solicitous to bring to a close. It had been ten 
years or mon' in progress, and his large body of subscribers began 
to be frequent in their enquiries and eager in their solicitude for its 
completion ; but few gave themselves the trouble to estimate the 
amount of labour that such an Herculean task demanded. He was 
himself heartily tired of it, and bitterly repented that he had ever 
embarked in it. 

On the 13th July, 1821, Dr. Clarke was elected a member of the 
Royal Irish Academy ; an honour peculiarly gratifying to him, pro- 
ceeding as it did from his own countrymen. Thus his name be- 
came enrolled among the chief literati of the country. 

In the autumn of this year. Dr. Clarke received a pressing so- 
licitation from the Methodists at Ep worth, in Lincolnshire to give 
them a collection sermon ; and venerating the place as having given 
birth to Mr. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, he consented 
to go, and appears to have been not a little gratified with the affec- 
tionate people, and a sight of the parsonage house. " I trod the 
ground with reverence," says the Doctor, " and with strong feelingi 

3 F 



402 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

of religious gratification. Mr. Nelson, the present curate, led us into 
every room and apartment of the house up and down. I was 
greatly delighted." He then details the particulars of this venerable 
mansion, which he says is " a complete old-fashioned family house, 
well suited for nineteen children, (of which the offspring of the 
venerable Samuel Wesley consisted.) Having looked a little about 
on all things, we went into the church-yard to see a sycamore tree, 
which was planted by the hand of old Samuel Wesley : I measured 
its girth, which was exactly two fathoms in circumference. I 
brought away a piece of the outer bark : the tree is become hollow 
at the root, and is fast decaying : it is well grown, and fowl of many 
a wing have lodged under its branches ; it has shot out strong and 
powerful boughs ; some of which have already dropt off, and after 
a few more years, it will have neither root nor branch. We marked 
Also, old Mr. Wesley's tomb-stone." 

SECTION xvni. 

Dr. Clarke s biography continued from a. d. 1820 to 1825. — Is in- 
troduced to the Duke of Sussex, — Interests himself in behalf of the 
Shetland Islands. — Again visits Ireland and Scotland. — Leaves 
Millbrook, and takes up his residence in Middlesex, 

Dr. Clarke, about this time, was called to mourn the loss of seve- 
ral valuable friends, whose death succeeded each other in rather 
quick succession, and which could not but tend greatly to depress 
his own spirits. One of the foremost of these was the youngest sister 
of Mrs. Clarke, namely, Mrs. Butterworth, whose decease took place 
in the month of June, 1820. If the writer is not mistaken, for he 
speaks solely from recollection, this amiable lady fell a martyr to 
cancer in the breast, occasioned by the fall of a book from a shelf 
in the library, and from which probably she anticipated no incon- 
venience at the moment. She lingered under this painful affliction 
tome time, and was happy in the prospect of being released from it. 
She was a woman of superior understanding, and took a lively in- 
terest in several benevolent institutions, among which was the Fe- 
male Penitentiary at Pentonville, of which she was a leading Mem- 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. 3 



403 



ber of the Committee. Her affection for Dr. Clarke was great : 
the regard created by the relationship being deepened by his hav- 
ing been to her the instrument of great spiritual good : and the love 
■which she felt for Mrs. Clarke shewed itself in constant kindness, 
not only to her, but to each member of her family. Her husband, 
who was the principal law-bookseller, was a very successful trades- 
man, and from his ample resources, having a very limited family of 
their own, she drew the means of contributing liberally to benevo- 
lent institutions, and consequently of being extensively useful, in 
her day and generation. 

In February 1821, while Dr. Clarke was on a visit to London, 
he was informed of the illness of his highly esteemed friend and 
colleague, the Rev. Joseph Benson, who then lay at the point of 
death at the preacher's house adjoining the City Road chapel. Mr. 
Benson is well known to have ranked among the ablest and most 
judicious preachers of the Methodist connection. Though inferior 
to Dr. Clarke in general learning, he was much his superior in 
solidity of judgment, and in powers as a theologian. In fact, Dr 
Clarke himself did not hesitate to yield him the pre-eminence in 
these respects, and to acknowledge him as among the greatest 
divines of his day. While he honoured Dr. Clarke for his extensive 
learning and indefatigable zeal, no one regretted more than Mr. 
Benson the Doctor's eccentricities, which he has feelingly lamented 
to the writer of these lines. Nevertheless, hearing that Dr. C'iai-ke 
was in town, he expressed a desire to see him, and his wish was 
gratified. The interview was solemn and affecting. As it was 
evident that a few hours would close the m^ortal scene, Dr, Clarke 
kneeled down by the bed-side, which was surrounded by si veral 
members of Mr. Benson's family, and in fervent prayer coinmended 
his brother to the especial support and protection of his ht^avenly 
Father. Mr. Benson died soon afterwards ; and before he left town, 
Dr. Clarke had the melancholy task of performing the last sad 
office of friendship to his mortal remains, by speaking over his 
corpse, in the City Road chapel, before an immense crowd of the 
friends of the deceased, and pronouncing a ti'ibute of praise to his 
talents and ministerial usefulness. It fell to the lot of Dr. Clarke 
to perform a similar service over the remais s of Mr. Sa^l^el Bradr 



404 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

burn, "who deservedly ranked high among the Wesleyan Methodist 
preachers, and for whose kind heart and disinterested disposition he 
always entertained sincere regard. 

The subject of a republication of the London Polyglott Bible, 
with improvements, has been already adverted to, as a matter which 
Dr. Clarke had much at heart, previous to his leaving London, and 
taking up his residence at Millbrook ; but it had lain dormant for 
several years, and now became once more revived, in the following 
manner. 

That work was first undertaken by Bishop Walton during the 
protectorate of Oliver Cromwell ; and to him, Walton wrote the 
Epistle Dedicatory. Cromwell, however, died, before the actual 
publication of the work, and the Dedication was consequently sup- 
pressed, and a new one drawn up addressed to his successor. King 
Charles IL Many of the Republican copies of the Polyglott had, 
however, found their way into the world, and their very suppression 
rendered them both scarce and valuable, on account of the Republi- 
can Dedication. Dr. Clarke happened to be in possession of both 
these editions ; and anxious to accommodate many of his literary- 
friends, who could not procure the same, he got a few copies of the 
first or Republican Dedication, printed off, in exact imitation of the 
original, and to make the facsimile perfect he took the trouble of 
staining the paper to the precise shade of the Polyglott. His Royal 
Highness the Duke of Sussex, hearing of this, requested Mr. Blair, 
an eminent surgeon who was intimate with both parties, to procure 
him a copy, if possible, to complete his Polyglott. To this com- 
munication. Dr. Clarke replied in a handsome letter addressed to 
the illustrious Duke, dated Millbrook, February 11th, 1822, ex- 
pressing the high gratification which he had in transmitting the 
Preface which he accompanied with the little Tract on Polyglott 
Bibles, in which he described the nature, circumstances, and extent 
of the Bishop's cancel and reprint. The Doctor then adds — 

" It has doubtless occurred to your Royal Highness, that no vo- 
lume of the Polyglott has a Title Page except the first. To supply 
this pitiful defect, and to make my own copy complete, I printed 
a few sets of Titles to the whole six volumes ; a set of which I en- 
close, and entreat your Royal Highness to accept them. To a few 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 405 

copies of the fifth volume, containiug the New Testament, Bishop 
Walton printed a separate and peculiar title ; this I also reprinted, 
and enclose a copy with the others. The Paris Polyglott, in ten 
volumes large folio, has but one title page; nine of the volumes are 
utterly without any but half-titles. I have also reprinted a set of 
titles for this work ; and should your Royal Highness have this 
Polyglott in your library, I would wish to make it more complete, 
by inserting a title in each volume. On receiving any intimation of 
your Royal Highness's pleasure ou this head, I shall be happy to 
transmit, without delay, a set of these titles also. Both sets of titles 
are as near as may be facsimiles of the Originals in the Polyglotts : 
any careful binder can insert the titles into their respective volumes 
so as to look as well as if they had been inserted at first." 

To this communication, T. J. Pettigrew, Esq., his Royal High- 
ness's Secretary and Librarian, returned the following answer ; 

Spring Gardens, Fehruart/ 14, 1822. 

Sir, 

I have the honour, by the command of the Duke of Sussex, to 
acknowledge the receipt of your letter and the accompanying parcel 
sent for his Royal Highness's acceptance. 

I am commanded by his Royal Highness to return you his best 
thanks, and to assure you how highly he estimates your attention 
on this occasion. The Richlieu Polyglott is in the library of his 
Royal Highness, and he will be delighted to receive the proffered 
Titles to that work. The Duke commands me to say, that he trusts 
whenever you come to London you will honour him with a visit, 
when he will be very proud to shew you his library, and be most 
happy to make the acquaintance of a man for whose talents and 
character he has so exalted an opinion." 

This correspondence will sufficiently explain to the reader the 
commencement of the acquaintance between Dr. Clarke and the 
Duke of Sussex, and prepare him for much that is to follow. The 
whole is honourable to the memory of Dr. Clarke : there is no time- 
serving sycophancy in the matter — the acquaintance was unsoli- 
cited on his part, and neither his character nor his principles were 
compromised in the affair. He transmitted a complete set of 
titles to the Paris Polyglott, for the Royal Duke's acceptance, and. 



406 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



in a letter to Mr. Pettigrew, dated February 19, 1822, availed 
himself of the opportunity of enclosing " The Plan and Specimen 
of a new edition of the Polyglott," which had been projected by 
himself and the Rev. Josiah Pratt, as formerly mentioned in this 
Memoir. He tells him that as soon as the proposal was made 
known, several lay gentlemen came forward with liberal promises 
of pecuniary assistance ; and, among the rest, Joseph Butterworth, 
Esq. M.P. who engaged to give fifty pounds a year, for seven 
years, as it was taken for granted the work would require that 
time in preparation for and passing through the press : — that he 
himself offered his services to prepare the Hebrew text, and correct 
it from the press ; also to superintend the Persian : — that Mr. Pi att 
offered to correct and arrange the Varies Lectiones^ which would 
have given him great labour, and for which few were better quali- 
fied. He goes on to mention that in order to bring the design 
into tangible shape, a meeting was appointed at Lord Teign- 
mouth's, with his Lordship; the Bishop of St. David's; Mr. Shakes- 
peare, the Professor of Arabic ; Archdeacon Wrangham ; and some 
other gentlemen ; with Mr. Pratt and himself: — that, as the Bishop 
expressed a strong desire that the work should originate with the 
Bishops, and they "ere earnestly desirous that it should, they were 
directed to draw up a j)]an and prospectus, to print and send a 
parcel to Lord Teiuainouth who undertook to' distribute them 
among the lay lords, and a parcel to his Lordship of St. David's, 
who undertook to disperse them among the Bishops. This was 
accordingly done; and being then a sub-commissioner of the 
Records, having a selection of State Papers under his direction, 
and, in consequence, acquainted with his Majesty's Ministers, 
Dr. Clarke, himself, sent a copy to each of them. No backward- 
ness was expressed any where ; all rejoiced at the prospect of adding 
this most signal trophy to our national honour. The work was 
delivered into the hands of the Right Reverend the Bishops, and 

there it sleeps in peace ! 

That Dr. Clarke should feel sensibly mortified at this supineness 
on the part of the Episcopal bench is very natural : he tells Mr. 
Pettigrew, that had he suspected such an issue of his labours, he 
would have endeavoured to gain access to the Prince Regent, and 
on his knees, have presented to his Royal Highness a memorial on 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL.D., F. A. S. 



407 



the Bubjectj nor could he doubt that the project would have met 
with his approbation : under his commands the bishops would have 
exerted their influence, for this is all that was required of them ; 
and most probably a Regium Donum would have covered the 
expenses. Had the project at that time been laid before Buona- 
parte, the French Government would have snatched this laurel 
from the British nation ; and we should now have had from that 
country, an edition of the Polyglott, as far superior to that of 
Walton, as his was to that of L.e Jaye. 

" I think it will excite the regret of the Duke of Sussex when he 
hears of the unfortunate issue of this noble and important pro- 
posal. I make no apology. Dear Sir, for troubling you with this 
expose: you are a learned man, and to such, all details of this kind 
are welcome. I feel myself honoured by the great condescension 
of his Royal Highness, in expressing his desire to see me at Ken- 
sington Palace. I must request you. Dear Sir, to make my 
humble acknowledgments as acceptable as possible to his Royal 
Highness. I seldom visit liOndon, though a part of my family ig 
resident there ; but should I come, I shall feel myself honoured in 
receiving any commands from His Royal Highness, and be pleased 
to see the Library." 

To this letter Mr. Pettigrew replied, on the 8th of March, in the 
following handsome terms : — 

" 1 have many apologies to make for not acknowledging earlier 
the safe arrival of the roll of title-pages which you were so obliging 
as to transmit to me for His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex ; 
and for which I am commanded by His Royal Highness to offer 
you his best thanks. The accounts you have favoured me with, 
respecting the projected new edition of Walton's Polyglott, is ex- 
ceedingly interesting. The Duke laments that he did not earlier 
become acquainted with the plan ; he would have done every thing 
in his power to aid its being carried into effect. Mr. Butterworth's 
liberal offer deserves to be recorded ; — it does him high honour. I 
hope that still some efforts may be made for the new edition, and 
should you come to town, perhaps something may be done." 

The Anniversary and public meetings, connected with the 
Wesleyan Missionary Society, called Dr. Clarke up to town 



408 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MIMSTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



towards the -end of April, and this gave him an opportunity of 
accepting the invitation of the Duke of Sussex to Kensington 
Palace. He wrote to one of his family under date of May 3, say- 
ing that he had preached repeatedly for the missionary cause, and 
so successfully as to have collected upwards of five hundred pounds'. 
He sent a note to Mr. Pettigrew, stating that he was in town, and 
in the course of the same day, received a special invitation to dine 
with his Royal Highness next day at Kensington Palace. He 
accordingly went, and was received by the Royal Duke in his 
closet, and led by himself through his library, where he was shown 
several curious things. The Duke of Sussex condescended to ask 
him several bibliographical questions, desiring his librarian, from 
time to time, to note down the answers as "curious and important." 
The dinner hour arrived, and the company, which was select, con- 
sisted of the Duke of Sussex; Dr. Parr, the highest Greek scholar 
in Europe; Sir Anthony Carlisle; the Rev. T.Maurice, of the 

British Museum ; the Honourable Gower; Colonel Wildman; 

Sir Alexander Johnstone ; Lord Blessinton ; Mr. Pettigrew ; and 
himself. The company sat down to dinner about seven o'clock, 
and the repast was not over till half-past nine. The conversation 
was unique, curious, and instructive. Dr. Clarke was given to 
understand that he must remain till all the company had departed, 
which was about twelve o'clock. When they were all gone, the 
Duke sat down on his sofa, and beckoned to Dr. Clarke to come 
and sit down beside him, on his right hand. He then entered for 
a considerable time into a familiar conversation with him. At last 
a servant in the royal livery addi-essed the Doctor, saying, " Sir, 
the can'iage is in waiting!" Dr. Clarke rose up, and His Royal 
Highness at the same time, took him affectionately by the hand, 
told him he must come and visit him some morning when he was 
alone, which time should be aiTanged between the Duke's Secretary 
and the Doctor — bade him a friendly " good night," and he was 
then conducted by the servant to the door of the palace, where one 
of the royal carriages was in waiting to convey him to his lodgings. 
" Thus ended a day," says Dr. Clarke, " of singular event in 
the life of A. C. which I shall ever remember with pleasing 
recollections." 



OF THE RET. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A.S. 409 

In the year 1822, the Methodists held their Annual Conference 
sittings, in London, and Dr. Clarke was, for the third time, chosen 
President. The subject of missions in general, and of the Home 
Missions more especially, came under discussion on this occasion. 
Those of Scotland, including the Hebrides, Orkneys, &c. led to 
further details in reference to the Shetland Islands, which were 
ascertained to stand greatly in need of a supply of spiritual instruc- 
tion. Dr. M'Allum, one of the members of the Conference, 
entered largely into this subject, and drew such a picture of the 
state of these islands, as held Dr. Clarke spell-bound; and he 
instantly proposed the sending of two missionaries thither, as soon 
as proper persons could be found to undertake the enterprize. His 
next business was to raise adequate supplies for their maintenance 
and support; and for this purpose he wrote strongly and impor- 
tunately to Robert Scott, Esq. of Pensford, in the county of 
Somerset, on the subject. That gentleman, in the most liberal 
manner, at once offered one hundred pounds a year for the support 
Df a missionary to Shetland, and ten pounds towards every chapel 
tliat should be built, besides handsome donations from Mrs. Scott 
and her sister ; Miss Granger, of Bath. To these handsome con- 
tributions were added others, from several ladies, personal friends 
of Dr. Clarke. 

Two young men, whose names were Dunn and Raby, made an 
offer to the Conference to undertake the mission, and being ap- 
pioved. Dr. Clarke, who was much pleased with their spirit and 
conduct, invited them to spend some time with him at Millbrook 
previous to their departure, in order that he might converse with 
th'^m in a more especial manner in reference to their mission, and 
give them instruction as to the best method of proceeding in it. A 
Scotch gentleman, who was on a visit to Millbrook at the same 
time, gave them letters of uitroduction to merchants in Edinburgh; 
and these, on being presented, were exchanged for others to several 
of the principal merchants at Lerwick, the chief town in the Shet- 
land islands, which paved the way to a ready and respectable 
entrance on their missionary labours. Messrs. Dunn and Raby 
had not been long there before they found the nature of the climate 
to be such, and the islands at certain seasons of the year, so much 

3G 



410 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

exposed to storms and tempests, that it was quite impossible to 
preach out of doors, and consequently that places for public 
worship were loudly called for. The people gladly received their 
doctrine, and the cottages soon became too small to contain the 
hearers : they therefore appealed to the liberality of the Methodists 
in England to grant them assistance in erecting places of worship. 

Dr. Clarke, with his accustomed zeal and intrepidity, took up 
the case, and put his shoulder to the wheel in order to help on the 
machine, nor was it in vain. Individuals came promptly forward ; 
and the voice of his frequent and urgent solicitations was answered 
by a liberal supply for the proposed object. In a short time 
several commodious chapels were built, to which hundreds flocked 
to hear the Word of God. The people themselves took a lively 
interest, and by their gratuitous labour a great work was shortly 
accomplished, and in a manner the most creditable ; for no debt 
remained upon any of the chapels that were erected. 

Towards the end of the year 1822, Dr. Clarke presented the 
Duke of Sussex with a large paper copy of his Commentary on the 
Bible, so far as was then published, viz. The whole of the New 
Testament, which was first put to press — and the Old, from its 
commencement with the book of Genesis to the end of the book of 
Psalms — promising the sequel as it should appear. A letter to his 
Royal Highness, dated Millbrook, Nov. 8, 1822, after apologizing 
for his apparent intrusion, goes rather copiously into detail on the 
history of the publication, and in which the good Doctor may 
possibly be thought by some to give himself more credit for his 
exemption from a pre-conceived creed than he was entitled to do. 
" Conscious," says he, " that translators in general, must have had 
a particular creed, in reference to which they would naturally con- 
sider every text, which, however honestly intended, might lead 
them to glosses, not always fairly deducible from the original 
words, I sat down with a heart as free from bias and sectarian 
feeling as it was possible, and carefully read over, cautiously 
weighed, and literally translated every word, Hebrew and Chaldee, 
in the Bible : and as I saw it was possible, while even assisted by 
the best Lexicons, to mistake the import of a Hebrew term, and 
knowing that the cognate Asiatic languages would be helps ol 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 411 

great importance in such an inquiry, I collated every verse 
where I was apprehensive of ditBculty, with the Chaldee, Syriac, 
Ethiopic, Arabic, and Persian, as far as the Sacred Writings are 
extant in these languages, with a constant reference to Readings 
collected by Kennicott and De Rossi, and to the Septuagint and 
Vulgate, the earliest translations of the Hebrew Text which have 
reached our times." 

That Dr. Clarke's Commentary is a work of immense labour 
and indefatigable research will be denied by no candid and dis- 
passionate judge ; but while we give him full credit for his learning 
and labour, it is impossible to avoid smiling at the high degree of 
credit which he took to himself for his total exemption from Sec- 
tarian bias — and the imputation which he without hesitation fixes 
on all former translators. What is this but saying, that he rose up 
into virtue as all former translators sunk into vice. How could 
the good man so far mistake his own case as to fall into this lamen- 
table delusion ? Was he not demonstrably drenched in Arminian- 
ism before he penned a line of his Commentary ? But more of 
this in its proper place : let us hear him out. 

This reading and collocation produced an immense number of 
Notes on all parts of the Old Testament, which I was prevailed on 
by several of my learned friends to extend in form of a perpetual 
Comment on the whole book. The Comment I put to press in 
1810, after having been for the thirty years preceding employed on 
the reading, collating, &c. already mentioned. When I had finished 
in this way the Pentateuch and the books of Joshua and Judges, 
1 was advised by many of my friends, (who were apprehensive 
from the infirm state of my health, that I might not live long 
enough to go regularly through the whole) to omit for the present 
the Old, and begin with the New Testament. I did so, and 
having literally translated every word of that last best gift of God 
to man, comparing the whole with all the ancient versions, and the 
most important of the modern, and collated all with the various 
Readings collected by Stephens, Fell, Courcel, Gherard of Maes- 
triclit, Bengel, Mills, Wetstein and Griesbach, actually examining 
many MSS. myself, illustrating the whole by quotations from ancient 
authors. Rabbinical, Greek, Roman, and Asiatic, I brought my 



MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITING*, 



Comment down on the above plan to the end of the Apocalypse. 
When this was finished, I returned to the Old Testament, and have 
now brought it down to the end of the book of Psalms, the last 
part of which is just now coming from the press. 

" In the prosecution of this work I was led to attend, in the first 
instance, more to words than things, in order to find their true 
ideal meanings, together with the different shades of acceptation, 
to which they become subjected in their application to matters, 
which use and circumstances, in the lapse of time had produced. 
And as I perceived an almost continual reference to the literature, 
arts, and sciences of the ancient world, and of the Asiatic nations 
in particular ; I made these things my particular study, having 
found a thousand passages which I could neither illustrate nor 
explain, without some general knowledge of their jurisprudence, 
astronomy, chemistry, medicine, surgery, meteorology, pneumatics, 
&c., and with their military tactics, and the arts and trades of 
common life. 

In such researches, connected with the studies previously 
mentioned, and in bringing down the Comment as above specified, 
I have consumed nearly forty years. And by this your Royal 
Highness will at once perceive, that, be the work ill or well executed, 
it has not been done in a careless or precipitate manner; nor have 
any means within my reach been neglected, to make it in every 
respect, as far as possible, a help to the better understanding of 
the Sacred Writings. 

" In the course of all this labour I have also paid particular 
attention to those facts recorded in the Bible, which have been the 
subject of animadversion by Freethinkers and Infidels of all classes 
and times ; and trust I may say that, no such passage is either 
designedly passed by or superficially considered ; that the strongest 
objections are fairly produced and met ; that all such parts of the 
Divine Writings, are in consequence exhibited in their own lustre j 
and that the truth of the doctrines of our salvation, has had as 
many triumphs, as it has had attacks, from the rudest and most 
formidable of its antagonists." 

At the time Dr. Clarke's presentation copy arrived at Kensington 
Palace, His Royal Highness was se: *Dusly indisposed and laid up 



OF THK REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



413 



for six weeks ; but on the 24th of December, he acknowledged the 
receipt of the volumes in a long and remarkably kind letter written 
with his own hand. His Royal Highness expresses himself ex- 
t^eedingly gratified by the treasure sent him— avows himself a firm 
believer in the divine origin of Christianity, though he is fully 
determined never to burthen himself with what are commonly desig- 
nated " dogmas," which in his conscience, he believes for the most 
part, if not entirely, are human inventions, and not exerted for 
purposes, from motives of Christian charity ! " I am, therefore" 
says his Royal Highness, " determined to keep my mind calm upon 
such topics, and to remain undisturbed and unbewildered by them. 
I am persuaded that their adoption is not necessary for salvation." 
However, though his indisposition had hitherto prevented him from 
looking into the Doctor's Commentary, he does not hesitate to 
pronounce a high eulogium upon it, and " most faithfully promises 
to read, consult, and meditate, upon his faithful, luminous, and 
elaborate explanations of the Sacred Book. — To these I shall 
assiduously apply myself when retired in my closet, and as my 
heart and mind improve, I shall feel my debt of gratitude towards 
you increasing, an obligation I shall ever be proud to own ; and 
with which sentiment I have the pleasure to conclude, signing 
myself, dear Sir, 

Your sincerely obliged and truly devoted 

Augustus Frederick. 

Bognor, December 24:th, 1822. 

In the year 1823, Dr. Clarke was elected a member of the Geo- 
logical Society of London ; and about the same time, he became 
one of the original members of the Royal Asiatic Society, an insti- 
tution just then started by Sir Alexander Johnstone, lately returned 
from the Governorship of the Island of Ceylon, in conjunction with 
Dr. Clarke and a few other Oriental scholars. 

In the course of the summer, having by virtue of his office as 
President of the English Conference to preside over the Irish one 
also, Dr. Clarke again visited Ireland, accompanied by W. Smith, 
Esq., of Reddish House, Stockport, and his daughter. He set off 
on this tour towards the end of May, taking the road to the north of 



4^14 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

England, and tlie south wesr of SooHand in their way. Arriving 
at CariisJe, our travellers spent some tiine in viewing- the city, 
its ruined walls, castle, and cathedral. The Doctor describes the 
city as being delightfully situated, and in a general way well built 
— its streets wide and well paved. The two law courts are fine 
modern buildings, and the first you meet on your entrance from the 
south. 

Having preached to a large and attentive congregation on the 
evening of the 28th of May, they set off early next morning on the 
"way to Scotland, and crossing the little river Sark, thirteen miles 
from Carlisle, which here separates the two kingdoms, they pro- 
ceeded to Dumfries, a neat, well built, clean town, where they exa- 
mined the monument erected to the memory of the poet Burns, a 
native of the place. He is represented in the act of ploughing upon 
a rock, when an. angelic form, designed to represent the Genius of 
Poetry surprises him with her sudden appearance. He looks 
amazed — one hand drops from the plough-handle, while the other 
still holds it on its bed — and with his head inclined a little back- 
ward he contemplates the vision. The statue is as large as life, 
executed in white marble, and placed under a neat dome, with open 
arches to the front and end, the back part being occupied by the 
figures. An old man who attended and who was personally ac- 
quainted with the poet, was asked, if the figure was a likeness. He 
replied, " It is a resemblance but not a likeness." Dr. Clarke saw 
nothing particularly impressive either in the figure or its accompani- 
ments. He pronounced the figure but mean, and the attitude trite 
and vulgar : any person may be expected to stare at the descent of a 
celestial being. His holding the plough, points out his early 
occupation — his ploughing on a rock, may be intended to repre- 
sent the little benefit he derived from the cultivation of that genius 
of poetry with which he was endowed in no common measure ; 
but the emblem may be applied to his country, which suffered him 
to continue in such contracted circumstances, as to render him 
accessible to persons of a low and profligate course of life ; and 
thus fostered habits which shortened his days, and eventually cut 
off a man of such native unforced genius, full of true wit and 
benevolent feeling — a poet who sketched nature with the hand of a 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 415 

master, and by his inimitable descriptions, causing the rural and 
rude customs of his country to live through all succeeding ages. 
Such a man and such a genius was, in the eighteenth century, 
permitted to live in the low contracted situation of a common 
officer of excise, and thus put in the very way in which he was 
most likely to indulge in those propensities, which, by frequenting 
low company, he had unhappily contracted. He never once had it 
in his power to rise above the level of his original circumstances, 
but had to labour on while he cultivated the muses. Scotland 
must ever feel with regret, that she neglected a man who is her 
boast and her honour ! Such are Dr. Clarke's reflections on the 
case of the unfortunate Burns — the reader will probably not be 
displeased, as the subject is thus brought under review, if I in- 
troduce a paragraph from the pen of the poet's own countryman, 
Allan Cunningham. The sketch is so graphic and masterly, that I 
cannot resist the pleasure of quoting it. 

" The name of Burns, and the fame of his poetry, flashed like 
sunshine over the land, and, as Byron said of himself, he lay down 
to sleep obscure, and awoke eminent. The first scholars of Scot- 
land courted his acquaintance; and the highest and the lowest 
names in the country were huddled together in the subscription for 
a new edition of his works. He was invited to Edinburgh, where 
Blair called him the Lowland Ossian ; Burnett took him to his 
evening parties, where he drank wine out of bottles wreathed with 
flowers, in the manner of the ancients : Mackenzie handed him to a 
wider fame in a generous and venturous critique ; and the Duchess 
of Gordon admired his wit, and took his arm as she walked from 
the drawing-room to the supper table. The inspired peasant of 
the west, was received and entertained as a sort of wonder ; he was 
exhibited at the tables of the great, that they might make merry 
>vith him, as the lords of the Philistines of old with Sampson: lords 
nodded approbation to the sallies of his wit ; and ladies sat round 
him in ring, fanning his forehead with their plumes, surprised with 
his untutored eloquence. Some pension, post, or place, was ex- 
pected by the country to be bestowed on the poet : One wrote to 
him that the government would surely do something ; a second 



4)16 



MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



hinted at royal patronage ; while a third, wiser than any, whispered 
' return to the fanners and the furrowed fields, and be indepen- 
dent.' He was praised, caressed, and feasted, till the taste for 
things rustic was cloyed, and men desired to see something new ; 
lords and ladies neglected to invite him ; when they met him by 
chance, saluted him coldly, or passed by him with averted eyes. 
He stayed for nearly a whole year in Edinburgh, and seeing at 
last his hopes were vain, retired in deep anger and disgust to 
Nithsdale : took the farm of Ellisland from Miller of Dalswinton, 
married Jean Armour, and resolved to be prudent and laborious. 
But all his speculations regarding independence were doomed to 
be unfortunate : the farm required more attention than the poet 
was disposed to bestow upon it; he resigned it; accepted a situa- 
tion in the Excise, and lived in the hope of rising to the situation 
of supervisor. * The luckless star that ruled his lot,' interposed ; 
he felt, as the world now feels, that his country had neglected him ; 
and, in the bitterness of disappointed hope, spoke too freely about 
freedom, the natural dignity of genius, and the fame which talenla 
bring, compared to the rank which a king bestows. He was given 
to understand that his hopes of preferment were blasted ; and his 
continuing in his humble office depended on his silence. He sur- 
vived this degradation a year or more, but never held up his head 
again : he died in the summer of 1 796, more of a broken heart 
than of any other illness. 

" In person. Burns was tall, well made, and muscular, and of 
such strength and activity, that feu could match liim in the toil 
which husbandry requires. His forehead was broad ; his hair in- 
clining to curl ; his visage very swarthy ; his eyes large, dark, and 
lustrous; and his voice deep and manly. As a poet he stands in 
the first rank. His conceptions are ail original ; his thoughts are 
new and weighty ; his style unborrowed ; and he owes no honour to 
the subjects which his muse selected, for they are ordinary, and 
such as would have tempted no poet, save himself, to sing about. 
All he has written is distinguished by a happy carelessness, a fin6 
elasticity of spirit, and a singular felicity of expression — by the 
•rdour of an impassioned heart, and the vigour of a clear under- 



or THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL, 1)., F. A. S. 4l7 

Standing. His language is familiar, yet dignified; careless, yet 
<X)ncise ; he sheds a redeeming light on all he touches ; whatever 
his eye glances on rises into life and beauty/'^ 

Dr. Clarke speaks in almost rapturous strains of Edinburgh. 
Whether considered in itself, or in \U situation, he says, " it is the 
most superb, and the most beautiful city I have ever seen : the 
streets are very wide, well laid out, and admirably well paved : the 
houses being all built of hewn stone, and very lofty, give it the 
appearance of a congeries of castles ; scarcely any thing can be 
conceived more majestic. This day (May 29) being the anniver- 
sary of the restoration of Charles II. the castle guns were fired, 
and a flag hoisted on Nelson's monument ; but, in this, the people 
here appear to take as little interest as they do in England. Find- 
ing that the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland were sitting, 
I got an admission into the place, which is much too confined for 
the purpose, and resembles a small Chapter-house in a poor ca- 
thedral; it is capable of holding about two hundred ministers, and 
has a sort of galleries, which would probably contain about half 
that number." 

Of Holyrood House, or the House of the Holy Cross, Dr. Clarke 
remarks, that when shown Into the chapel, he found it entirely 
without a roof. There is a window frame at one end, of beautiful 
stone work, which retains a feature of its former grandeur : the 
floor was entirely covered with grass and weeds ; the stone wall 
chiefly broken down; the monuments either shattered or so covered 
with grass and rubbish, that they were little discernible, and the 
inscriptions on them so filled up with moss, as to be wbolly ob-^- 
literated, unless by a sharp instrument you picked the letters out, 
which one of his companions attempted, but the task was too long 
and difiicult for the time they had to spare. The vault where the 
remains of the Scottish kings are deposited, and which consists of 
white marble, is now totally black, and in a state of the most de- 
plorable decay. They left this once beautiful chapel, and still the 
sacred depository of the remains of some of the first men and first 
names on the page of history, with feelings of pain and regret; and 



* Athenaeum, No. CCCXIII. October, 1833. 

3H 



418 MEMOIRS OF TKE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

were taken thence to the gallery of pictures, which he found 
nothing less than a whole series of impositions, for they were 
shown not only all the later Scottish kings, their ancient warriors — 
Macbeth, Macduff, and Donald, &c. &c. ; but also Fergus, the first 
King of Scotland ; and Caractacus, King of Britain. Some of the 
party ascended King Arthur's seat, in order to enjoy the fine ex- 
pansive view it affords ; after which they returned towards the city, 
stopping to view Nelson's Monument, and ascend to the top of 
Calton Hill. The former is built on the edge of a mouldering 
rocky precipice : immense portions of the rock are now in a state 
of decomposition and almost entire detachment from the rest, and 
there is no apparent solidity in any part. The Doctor declares 
that to him it would be no matter of surprise if, in less than fifty 
years, the monument and its foundation were precipitated down the 
hill ! From this hill the view of the old and new town ; Leith, 
with its harbour, and the sea ; as well as the adjacent parts of the 
country, are seen to the highest advantage. The city itself, viewed 
from this eminence, appears, for the regularity of its structure, the 
spaciousness of its streets, the height and splendour of its buildings, 
and the beauty of its situation and scenery, what perhaps it in 
reality is, the finest city in the world. 

From Edinburgh, Dr. Clarke and his companions proceeded to 
Glasgow, to which he had an invitation, and where he met Dr. 
M'Gill, professor of theology in the University. This gentleman 
introduced them to a view of the University, and the Hunterian, 
Museum, of neither of which does he make much account. The 
day was unfavourable and the city was immersed in smoke — the 
quay, paltry ; the shipping, poor ; and the Clyde appeared to dis- 
advantage. From hence they sailed, June 7th, on board the Eclipse, 
steam packet, for Belfast, where they arrived after a passage of about 
twenty-six hours, on the morning of J une the 9th, about ten o'clock. 

On the following day. Dr. Clarke spent some time in examining 
the Belfast Institution, which may be called the Northern College, 
or University of Ireland. It is partly supported by voluntary 
subscriptions, and partly by the sums paid by students in certain 
branches ; uniting, m some sort, a school for all departments of 
learning, and an academy for arts and sciences* It \b patronized 



OF THE RET. ADAM CtARKE, LI . D., t. A- 6. 419 



by Presbyterians and Seceders, (such as Burghers and Antiburghers 
&c.) each of which has a professor of theoiogy in the institution. 
He found the apparatus very scanty, and kept in dirty and bad 
repair, without order and arrangement ; their specimens of Natural 
History are few and neglected ; and in every respect the institution 
appeared to promise no long life, and to contain the seeds of its own 
dissolution. 

'* In the evening," says Dr. Clarke, " I had a meet! fig, with the 
preachers, stewards, and several principal friends together with 
almost all the leaders male and female, and endeavoured to set 
Ihem right on many matters on which they had got very uneasy.— 
On one proposing the question to me. Is Methodism now what 
it has been, I answered it in a way very different from what was, 
I believe, expected and intended by it. No ! it is more rational,— 
more stable, — more consistent,— more holy, — more useful to the 
community,— and a greater blessing to the world at large ! and all 
this, I found no difficulty in proving.* 

• The very learned Doctor has here touched upon a moot point I Arid 
though he takes full credit to himself for having proved all his points, it is at 
least possible that he may have been reckoning without his host. I am faf 
from wishing to enter upon any discussion of the subject, but I have no* 
before me a small pamphlet which made its appearance about this period and 
which issued from the London press, under the title of " Methodism in 1821, 
with Recollections of Primitive Methodism. By a Methodist of the old school.'* 
The anonymous author has taken for a motto the following words — " No man 
having drank old wine, straightway desireth new j for he saith, the old is 
better." 

The application of this text affords prima facie evidence, that the author 
was not entirely of Dr. Clarke's mind on the subject ; on the contrary, if he 
is to be believed, a most lamentable falling off from the spirit of Methodism 
had taken place in his time. He was contemporary, he tells us, with the 
founders of the denomination, and when admitted to the privileges of com- 
munion by Mr. Wesley himself, in the warmth of youthful zeal, he exclaimed, 
*' The Lord do so to me and more also if aught but death part them and nie." 
But let the reader remark how he now proceeds : 

** It is the folly of old men to be garrulous in praise of former times. They 
are said to regard every thing new as an innovation ; to consider every plan 
that is proposed by their juniors, as a reflection on their decaying wisdom 
and cooling judgment. I hope, however, this wiD not prove my failing'. I shall 



420 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



Dr. Clarke had it in contemplation, at this time, to make the 
tour of the south of Ireland, where, on no former occasion he had 
gone ; but owing to the exceedingly disturbed state of the country, 
his friends were particularly anxious to prevent his going. The 

be very careful to state only facts. I allow to every person the same liberty 
which I claim for myself, * I speak as unto wise men: ' let them judge what 
I say. 

*' I remember well the way in which preachers and people employed the 
Sabbath. In the vicinity of the chapel, one of the Itinerants generally 
preached in the open air, at seven o'clock in the morning. We assembled 
again at nine [and the usual worship was gone through.} The Itinerant after 
partaking of a meal at his own residence, met some serious persons in aa 
ante-room, at two o'clock. At three o'clock he preached and met the society. 
He then went to preach and meet another society at the east end of the town, 
while a local preacher addressed a full congregation in the evening. The 
preacher rarely complained of weariness of body or distraction of mind. The 
people rejoiced in refreshing seasons. Conversions were numerous. The 
Sabbath was indeed * a market day for the soul.' 

"This plan seemed excellent; but our moderns have refined upon it. A 
prayer meeting is now held on the Sabbath morning at seven o'clock ; the 
numbers who attend are very few. And lest the floor of the chapel should be 
•oiled, or the seats of our grandees profaned by vulgar touch, the poor people, 
who meet ' merely to hold a prayer-meeting,' are strictly forbidden to pass 
the boundaries of the free seats. 

"About eleven o'clock theltinerant sallies forth, or is drawn by a pair of hacks 
to the place of meeting. After a courtly reception from the Stewards in a 
epacious vestry, he commences the service by reading a portion of the Church 
prayers. Though in most cases he is a thorough-paced Dissenter ; has writ- 
ten perhaps against the Established Church ; and in the vestry * wonders that 
Ihe Methodists do not see their inconsistency, and blush at it ! ! !' The 
people who used to be punctual in their attendance, and to utter the responses 
in an audible voice, now continue to stroll in, with as much bustle as may be, 
till they suppose the preacher is ready to mount the pulpit. The sermon is 
preached and the people dismissed. The Itinerant then rests from h.\s fatigue, 
and dines at the house of some respectable ]^eTson in the neighbourhood. After 
dinner a poor well-meaning local preacher strives to gain the attention of a 
few sleepy servants, and nursery maids with noisy children ; in which work he 
is much annoyed by the people going to and from the various class-rooms. 
Meanwhile our Itinerant keeps a numerous company alive by his sparkling 
anecdotes, and endeavours to pay for his wine and other good cheer, by * be- 
coming all things to all men.' The clock striking six, this man of labour has 
to rouie tbe energies of his mind, and to exerl a small portion of his physical 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. T)., F. A. S. 4^1 



preachers in Dublin, met together on the subject, and after making 
it a matter of prayer for divine direction, all, except one, considered 
it most prudent that he should not go, while that one gave it as his 
judgment, that his person would be safe, and his journey prosper- 
ous for the cause of God in that part of Ireland, where he had never 
then been. They came and informed him of their deliberation and 
its issue ; but finding there was one dissentient voice, and that this 
accorded with his own opinion, he resolved upon going to Cork. 
He accordingly took his place in the mail coach, as did also two 
of his companions. On entering the post-office-yard, they were 
struck with remarking the extraordinary precautions that were re- 
sorted to for safety on the road. They were to travel with two 

strength. He repairs again to the chapel ; and while his portly appearance 
does ample credit to his keepers, he publishes to a large congregation, the 
second, third, or it may be the fourth edition of some favourite sermon, in 
which mortification and self-denial are insisted upon with peculiar pathos, as 
cardinal duties of the Christian life, and in which the preacher regrets, that 
the Methodists of the present day seem to have forgotten that weekly fasts 
were repeatedly recommended by Mr. Wesley, and that his successors since 
have been very zealous in their praise." 

He adverts to the art of book manufacturing, as a great and growing evil 
among the preachers. Mr. Wesley wrote and published much ; but then all 
his writings were ** pro bono publico." He designed his plain truths for plain 
people. He never consulted a bookseller to know how much might be safely 
charged for an octavo volume, printed on fine wove paper and hot pressed, 
with plates, and a portrait of the author ; nor was he ever anxious to have a few 
copies taken off on large paper, at a large price ! He then adds— • 

'* The love of fame, too, is intimately connected with this desire of gain. 
The Nelson's, Hopper's, Mather's, and Pawson's, of old time, were not great 
publishers ; hence they did not seek great names. They remembered * the 
rock whence they were hewn,' and though very popular and very useful, plain 
John, Chris, and Aleck, contented them right well. But our learned Divines 
carefully conceal their origin ; they * love greetings in the market-places,' and 
seats on the platforms. They dub each other Reverend, That they may pro- 
mote the sale of a * Commentary,' or edite a * Concordance' with greater 
eclat, they affect literary greatness, and append to their Reverend names the 
initials of learned societies. We are gaining rapidly in this species of dignity. 
Already we can boast of r. a. s's. and m. a's. and m. d's., and there is every 
reason to believe that many of our Tyro's will soon be able to say, with Peter 
Pangios, ' I am an ll. d. and an a. s. 8. ! 



422 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, rtflNlSTRY, AM) WRITINGS, 

guards all the way, each having four pistols in his girdle, and a 
broad sword at his side ! The Lord-lieutenant, had then recently, 
by proclamation, put the whole of the south of Ireland under the 
Insurrection Act. At half-past seven in the evening they set off, 
and at half-past five the following evening, in a state feverish enough, 
and covered with dust, they arrived in the city of Cork, having 
happily escaped all molestation, either by night or day. At Car- 
low they were joined by the Limerick mail, with its two guards also 
strongly armed, and the two coaches gladly kept company during 
the night. They saw multitudes of people in the streets of the 
towns they had to pass through, as well as on the roads, but they 
were (|uiet, and apparently sober. The part of the country through 
which they passed in the day-time was generally fine, but, alas ! 
cultivation was every where conducted in so slovenly a manner, that 
ev^n half crops could scarcely be produced. Owing to the seed 
being not properly cleansed before sowing, millions of weeds were 
to be seen in every field — thistles, cockles, colts-foot, mag-weed, 
wild mustard, and every thing that can be termed vitia segetum, was 
to be seen growing in multitudinous luxuriance. Add to which 
that no care was taken to weed the fields — to witness the state of 
most of them is painful ; for they are a reproach to their owners ; 
but indolence and disorder are the characteristics of Irishmen. 

Dr. Clarke visited the Cork Institution, and was glad to find 
that much of its attention was turned towards the improvement of 
agriculture in Ireland. The library was scanty and the books 
chiefly on the arts and sciences. The mineralogical room was well 
laid out, and had many good specimens both foreign and domestic : 
they had a large one of silver, several ounces in weight, thicker 
than a finger, and several inches long. Their native conchology 
was good ; their Natural History but indifferent. Walking round 
the wharfs they were struck with observing the vast quantity of 
acorn shells which they imported from Italy, for the purpose of 
tanning, and which is found to answer as well as the oak bark, for 
which tliey pay a high duty to government. Even on the quays, 
says Dr. Clarke, the general want of order prevails : every thing 
is at sixes and sevens, and the want of neatness and cleanliness waa 
very observable. The Doctor sums up his reflections on the customs. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



423 



manners, religion, and character of the Irish population in th* 
following terms. 

" The Roman Catholic population of Ireland is in general in very 
great misery, and this is chiefly occasioned, not by any political in- 
capacities under which they labour, but through a bad creed, (or 
system of religion) which prevents the cultivation of their minds, 
for among the Roman Catholics, education is greatly proscribed, con- 
sequently they know nothing of the management of their own minds^ 
but become the tools of their priests ; and thus, through their want 
of knowledge they are easily misled, while, through the strength of 
their passions they are readily employed in acts the most desperate, 
and schemes the most preposterous. — Having no education, and no 
mental cultivation, they are unacquainted with method, plan, and 
order ; they do nothing by rule, of course nothing regularly, nothing 
in its time and place, but all is hurry and confusion. They are 
dirty in their persons, clothes, houses, furniture, and even in their 
food : from the grossness of their habits, they will associate cm 
amore with their cattle, and even with their swine. I have seen 
them often all together in the same place, and eating together as 
creatures of the same species : the pig himself stands by to have a 
portion thrown to him while the family are devouring their meals. 
They have no economy ; they are wretched, because they take no 
pains to be otherwise ; they destroy one half of their property by 
mismanagement. They are slothful and idle, and therefore are in 
poverty — and the greater part of the distress they endure is owing 
to those two principles, mismanagement and idleness. Their re- 
ligious holidays, that is, their vast number of saints' days, on which 
they do no manner of work, necessarily retard useful labour, en- 
gender idleness, and hence proceeds disorder. They are not really 
religious ; they will invoke you by the Holy Trinity,— by Jesus, 
Joseph, Mary, and St. Patrick ; but these have no moral influence 
in their hearts, or on their lives ; for immediately after these de- 
vout prayers and invocations, if you do not yield to their suit, they 
directly curse you in the bitterness of their hearts. They have no 
idea of inward holiness ; outward observances constitute their re- 
ligion, leaving all other matters betwixt them and their maker to 
be transacted by their priests. They are told to hold in hatred all 



424 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

Other religionists, because they are told God hates them. Hence 
they are cruel arid blood thirsty ; — they will sometimes ham-string 
living animals, or mangle their flesh, leaving them at the same 
time life enough to be sensible of their agonies. The annual pluck- 
ing otF of the feathers of living geese, is not less a proof of their 
cruelty than of their extreme poverty. Inhumanity to brutes is 
ever connected with cruelty to man ; hence they are incendiaries 
and often murderers ! What then does Ireland owe to the Roman 
Catholic Religion ? It finds them uncultivated savages — it leaves 
them little better than fiends. But, compare their state with that of 
the Protestant Irish, who are less cruel, less wretched, less ignorant, 
less superstitious, less *i die, less dirty, less distrustful ; in short, 
who are in every respect the reverse of their poor misguided 
countrymen. 

" On the other hand, the Irish are capable of much improvement: 
they have a quick apprehension, and it is an easy task to instruct 
them in any thing. They have a ready wit : they can see things 
in their various bearings almost on a first view, and they possess a 
vivid fancy, which indeed is the cause of their making what are 
called bulls. Uncontaminated by their priests, they are open, un- 
suspicious, and friemUy. They have a strong desire for knowledge^ 
and are fond of learning, because by it their stock of knowledge is 
increased. When left to the bent of their own dispositions they 
possess strong benevolence ; hence they are proverbial for hospi- 
tality. They are patient, and can endure any kind of hardship, 
and seldom complain, while in the path of duty, of either hunger, 
thirst or nakedness. While un warped and unsophisticated, they are 
capable of strong friends! lip, and unswerving fidelity. In short 
you have but to emancipate them from their superstitions, and to 
cultivate the minds of the Irish, and they are as noble, as intellec- 
tual, as fine a race of beings as are in the world ; while at the same 
time, they are as capable of practising the moral and social duties 
as any people under the sun 1" 

Such is Dr. Clarke's estimate of the character of his country- 
men; than whom no one better understood or was more competent 
to appreciate it. In the same connection with the above he gives 
us the folio v;ing amusing account of an Irish Bull : — '' I observed 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. 425 

to-day (July 5) one of the causes of what are termed Irish Bulls; 
they generally arise out of the great disparity of idiom, between 
the English and Irish languages. An Irishman who speaks but a 
little English, translates that little from the Irish, following exactly 
the same collocation of terms as in his own tongue. This may 
appear more plainly from the following speech of Brian M'Sorley, 
who lived on the mountain called Bessey Bell, in the county of 
Tyrone. He had gone to the market to buy a little flesh-meat for 
his children; upon enquiry he found his finances would only enable 
him to buy apiece of bull-beef; he thrust his staff through the piece, 
put it over his shoulders, and thus carried it home. This transaction 
I shall give in his own words : — ' 1 went to the market to buy a 
little beef-bull: I ran him through my staff, and threw my shoulder 
over him, and brought him home to kitchen the childer among the 
praytees ; for nothing is better than something.' Kitchen, among 
these people, signifies to cook up any thing that is eaten with 
bread, potatoes, &c such as flesh, fish butter, and the like ; here 
>he poor man translated his Irish literally into English, with 
soveiai blunders, wliich occasioned this misplacing of almost all 
his terms: to Englishmen it appears ridiculous ; but an Irishman 
could readily understand it." 

The sittings of the Irish Conference commenced on the 27th ol 
June, and continued to the 7th of July, on which day they con- 
cluded in a satisfactory manner. It was to Dr. Clarke a season of 
hard labour, attended with some dangers, but he was strengthened 
and preserved to go through them ; and having finished his work 
in Ireland, he prepared to hasten home. Before he set out he had 
a severe attack of those spasms in his stomach and bowels, which 
are the usual consequences of being over-worked. For a time they 
were so severe as to threaten his life ; but happily they went off in 
a few hours, and a refreshing night's rest, enabled him to undertake 
the journey. He reached home on the 9th of July, having travelled 
two thousand miles in six weeks, and preached frequently to very 
large congregations. He had not been long at home, however, ere 
the meeting of the English Conference was at hand. This year it 
was held in Sheffield, and thither he proceeded A very large 
place of worship had been lately built by the Wesleyans in that 

3 I 



426 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



populous and thriving town, and Dr. Clarke was expected to open 
it, which he did on the 27th of July, 1823. He was within ten 
minutes of concluding his sermon, when one of the front seats of 
the gallery gave way ! In two minutes a thousand people rushed 
out of the chapel, and in their state of alarm, some individuals tore 
out the windows in the gallery, and on the gallery stairs, precipi- 
tating themselves from that eminence ! *' It is useless," says Dr. 
Clarke, in a letter to one of his own family, " to attempt to paint 
the scene:" he adds, " this is the third of the kind I have witnessed, 
and I think it will be the last, as I do not intend ever to open 
another chapel, break the ice who will, — but I intend to skate no 
more. What damage is done I cannot tell ; but I believe neither 
life nor limb has been lost: I am satisfied many must have been 
severely hurt, and the chapel is much injured ; most of the fine 
windows have been torn to pieces. When quiet was a little re* 
stored, I finished my sermon, but as to a collection for tKe chapel 
it was nearly impossible to make any. As soon as possible I came 
on to my lodging, and am sat down to write this letter." — *' Re- 
collect the scene you wituessetl with me at Rochdale ; — well, this 
was its counterpart." 

During the year 1824, Dr. Clarke was busily occupied with 
various literary pursuits — but chiefly in carrying forward his Com- 
mentary on the Old Testament to a conclusion. He seems himself 
to havG almost grown \^eary of the labour of it, and to have hur- 
ried towards a conclusion, if one may be allowed to judge from the 
following statement from under his own pen. He began his com- 
ment on Jeremiah, on the 1st of November, 1824, and finished that 
and the Lamentations on the 30th of the same month. He com- 
menced Ezekiel, December 1st, 1824, and finished it on the 21st. 
Here then we have a quarto volume of three hundered and ninety- 
six closely printed pages, in the short space of seven weeks ! It is 
to be presumed that the Doctor had made preparatory collections 
for the Comment on these two important prophetical books, other- 
wise it cannot be said to have been the fruit of much deliberate 
thought and study, yet Ezekiel ranks among the most difficult of 
all the prophets. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



427 



SECTION XIX. 

Dr. Clarke removes his residence to Haydon Hall — Further exer- 
tions for the Shetland Mission — Revisits Cork — Intercourse uoith 
the Duke of Sussex — Finishes his Commentary on the Bible — 
A.D. 1825—6. 

Having come (o the determinatiou of quitting Millbrook, and 
taking up his residence once more in the vicinity of London, 
where most, if not all his children, were now settled. Dr. Clarke 
found little difficulty in disposing of his property in Lancashire, 
which he did in the year 1824, and in order to make arrangements 
for the removal of his family, he preceded several weeks, and 
arriving in town, took a house in Canonbury Square, Islington, 
where he waited the arrival of his books and household furniture. 
He had not, however, been long in his new habitation before he 
6egan to feel that the atmosphere of the metropolis would not suit 
his constitution ; his health became visibly affected, and to such a 
degree as almost to incapacitate him for study. His kind friend 
and medical attendant, Mr. Hunter, of Islington Green, strongly 
urged upon him to look out for a country residence, where he 
might be out of the reach of the malaria of the metropolis, and 
this he happily succeeded in finding. 

Haydon Hall, the spot fixed upon, is about sixteen miles from 
town, in the village of Eastcott, near Pinner, in the county of Mid- 
dlesex. The house and grounds were beautiful and spacious, in a 
district recommended for its salubrity — yet sufficiently remote for 
the purposes of seclusion and study. Dr. Clgirke, therefore pur- 
chased the house and grounds, and retired to it in the month of 
September, 1824. Here he speedily recovered his health, and re- 
sumed his Commentary which he soon brought to a close. As 
there was no place of public worship within two miles of his own 
house, he procured a small place which he fitted up for the purpose, 
got it licensed for preaching, and it was soon filled with an atten- 
tive congregation. 

The deep interest which Dr. Clarke took in the Mission to the 



428 MEMOmS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

Shetland Islands, has been shewn hi a former section ; but the sub- 
ject continued to interest him considerably to the end of his life. 
Having to provide the funds for its support, and the erection of 
places of worship, he was much occupied in writing letters and 
making applications in behalf of those islands to his friends and 
other benevolent persons. The following is an extract from one of 
his letters to a Mrs. William Williams, who had exerted herself in 
behalf of the Mission. 

" I feel gratitude to God, Madam, in finding that he has disposed 
such as yourself to help me to bear a burden, which without such 
assistance, would be an overmatch for my strength. From the 
commencement of the Shetland 3Iission, it has been placed by my 
brethren under my care, and its wants and trials come all before 
me, and indeed are laid upon me. I have been a Missionary my- 
self, and in various places have, for between forty and fifty years, 
seen the work of the Lord. But a more effectual opening among a 
numerous, very destitute, and interesting people, I have never wit- 
nessed. The labours through which the Missionaries have gone, 
and are still going, are almost incredible ; but God mightily sus- 
tains them, preserves their lives and health, and makes them more 
than a general blessing. They not only travel and preach, always 
without the comforts and conveniencies of life, but frequently with- 
out its necessaries. They also teach the children in every place ; 
and visit and instruct the people from house to house ; never did a 
people receive the word of God with more gladness and simplicity 
of heart, nor have brought forth for the time more unequivocal 
fruits of genuine repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

" There are four Missionaries labouring there, of the same spirit, 
— Messrs. Dunn, Raby, Lewis, and Thompson. They are now 
building a chapel and preacher's house at Lerwick, and I have gone 
a begging through all my friends to cover the expence : the latter 
will be a rendezvous for the Missionaries when they return from time 
to time from visiting the different islands. The tracts, culinary 
articles, calico, &c., which your benevolent heart has devised and 
gent for them, will be most acceptable. 

" I thank you. Madam, in the name of the Lord, and of this peo- 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., P. A. S. 



429 



pie, for what you have already done. You take such an interest in 
my poor Shetlanders, that 1 know not adequately how to express 
my thankfulness. I do bless God for every friend he has raised to 
the Missionaries, and the people of those Hyperborean regions. To 
persons so absolutely beginning the world as the Shetland Mis- 
sionaries are, every thing necessary for housekeeping and furniture, 
must be very acceptable. I only wish your last bounty had already 
reached them, as they must feel many sore privations in these drear v 
days, in which they have but about four hours of day-light. The 
Quarto Bible, with marginal readings and references which you have 
sent, is the best for the pulpit ; and the chandelier, sent by Mr. 
Williams, for the chapel went also quite safely. The Bibles and 
Testaments which you purpose sending for the people will be most 
acceptable ; but suffer me to say the larger the print the better, as 
there are many old people not well furnished with spectacles. I 
am always glad to see your letters, for they bring me good news 
of precious gifts, or liberal devices from you." 

It would appear that some of the Scottish Clergy took alarm at 
this Shetland Mission, and strived to raise an opposition to it 
among the people of that inhospitable clime. It was given out that 
Dr. Clarke should state, when pleading the cause of the Mission, at 
the Anniversary Meeting, in London, that the Gospel was never 
preached in the Shetland islands until the Methodist Missionaries 
were sent there ; and Mr. Samuel Dunn, one of them wrote to the 
Doctor to enquire whether or not he had used such language. In 
reply he says, ** Nothing can be more false. No person spoke on 
the Shetland Mission, in that meeting but myself : and I then gave 
the highest character of the Scottish Clergy (!) I have ever consi- 
dered them the best preachers in Europe, and equally learned with 
their brethren of the English establishment. I may be mistaken, 
but I have ever considered that tlie Gospel of Christ was preached 
where ever a Scottish clergyman had his residence.* I am not re- 
ferring to the points in dispute between them and us. I believe 
they preach Christ crucified and redemption in his blood. This is 
the essence of the Gospel. But after having stated my opinion, and 

* This is surely a stretch of the Doctor's Catholicism I It would be no 
difficult task to convict many of them of Socinianism ! 



4S0 



MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



referred to the population of the Shetlands (25,000 souls) scattered 
through a number of islands, often extremely difficult of access ; I 
shewed that twelve ministers, had they been twelve apostles, were 
utterly insufficient to dispense the bread of life among such a mul- 
titude ; and the fact was, that multitudes of these never heard a 
gospel sermon, but at very select times ; and many, especially wo- 
men and children, perhaps not in their lives. And I used this as 
an eirgument why we should, if possible, supply their lack of ser- 
vice. Who can convict this of falsity ? If the General Assembly 
will send a sufficient number of men, full of faith and the Holy 
Ghost, who will take their lives in their hands, and travel, and 
preach, and visit from house to house, and suffer want and hard- 
ship, and the loss of all the comforts of life, as you are doing, I 
have done, and will cheerfully turn my attention elsewhere, and 
praise God that a suitable supply can be found in Scotland to meet 
the spiritual necessities of their brethren ; but this has not been 
done, nor will it be done, by that venerable Assembly ; if they have 
even the men that would go through all these hardships, and thes^ 
are not easy to be found, they have not the means. The Shet- 
landers have been shamefully neglected by them, by us, and by all. 
The other islands are not much better off. There are at least 
five thousand inhabitants in the island of my ancestors (Mdl) 
and is there a single clergyman in the whole island, or even 
one regular place of worship ? I know that it is now and then 
visited ; but will this satisfy the chief Shepherd ? ' The hungry 
sheep look up and are not fed !' You are welcome to post the 
above statement on the Market House of Lerwick if you please, ami 
let shame fall where it ought." Dr. Clarke's health at this time, 
(June 1824) appears to have been in a very indifferent state ; ihr 
writing to Mr. Dunn, one of the Shetland Missionaries he says, " 1 
believe I shall not venture to go to Conference. I have not been 
able to lift my hand in a pulpit for more than a month, and indeed 
only about three times in four months, and so shattered and so in- 
firm does my health seem ; that I doubt whether my active service* 
be not at an end ; yet like one of the worn-out Levites, I can help^ 
the church of God with my experience, counsels, and advice. I am 
not at all alarmed at the proposal of ibur chapels to be built. I 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



431 



wish you to write me a detailed state of the work in the islands ; — 
what is done, what is doing, and what must be done, in order fuL'y 
to occupy the house, the door of which God has so eflfectually 
opened. If possible, let me have this before Conference [meet.] I 
wish to have a chapel in Yell : surely God has not closed that door. 
Could you not sketch me a map of the islands, distinguishing the 
places where you preach, the number of inhabitants, — of the con- 
gregation, — in society, &c. I cannot get a map with a satisfactory 
view of those islands. Let not one inhabited rock even be without 
a Methodist sermon on it." 

In the year 1825, Dr. Clarke received a very affectionate and 
grateful letter from the class-leaders in the Methodist Society in 
Walls and Sandness, two places in Shetland, expressing their obli- 
gations to him for the services he had rendered in promoting the 
cause of the Mission among them. But it is manifest from this 
letter that the whole field was not occupied by the Methodists ; for 
the writers speak of congregations of dissenters, and aJso of Kirk- 
folks. Let the reader mark the following extract i — 

" Sir, it is for sending us the Gospel that we thank you. We 
would not intimate by this, that we had never heard the gospel 
before the ministers you sent reached our shores, — no such a thing 
is meant : but we must say, that until then, the Gospel was to us 
but a dead letter : we were dead in trespasses and in sin until 
aroused by the plain and faithful preaching of the Methodists ; they 
were the instruments which God employed to bring us from dark- 
ness to light. There are about two hundred persons in our society 
in this neighbourhood, the most of whom are adorning the Gospel 
of God our Saviour. But the good done by the Methodists is not 
confined within our society : all denominations have benefited : 
many of the clergy have received new energies, have appointed ser- 
mons to be read in the distant parts of their ministries, and sanc- 
tioned prayer-meetings among their own members. There are three 
such meetings in this neighbourhood every Sunday evening ; such 
were entirely unknown to us two years ago. The dissenters have 
also benefited materially by their (the. Methodist Missionaries) 
arrival in our isles ; for before, their congregations were exceedingly 
small ; but on their lending their meeting-houses to the Methodist 



432 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS. 

ministers, they were crowded to excess, and continue to be filled to 
this day, and a greater number of persons has joined their commu- 
nity in the last two years, than in any four years previously, since 
their establishment in Shetland : and mex^ of those are known to 
have been awakened under the preaching t.*l' Jie Methodists. Sir, 
we rejoice that good has been done, and is dt\l\ doing ; and great 
good has been done in this neighbourhood. There are at present 
ten sets of prayer-leaders in our society, — four held by the Dis- 
senters, and three by the Kirk-folks ; in all seventeen meetings held 
for prayer every Sunday night. Some of our people hold theii' 
prayer-meetings three times on a Sabbath, when they have no 
preaching. Most of these meetings are well attended: they will 
average forty persons each at the very lowest. We can declare to 
you that we rejoice that so much has been done in our isles, and we 
grieve that so much is yet undone, for in Walls and Sandness all 
are not converted ; may the Lord send by whom he will send, 
for we wish to be free from party zeal, and pray for the 
day, when * Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall 
not vex Ephraim.* But we trust that we have learned from Him 
who bore such contradiction of sinners against Himself : for once 
we also were disobedient, serving divers lusts, and we know that 
were we of the world, the world would love us ; but it hates us for 
the same reason that it hated our Master ; and we bless his name 
for having counted us worthy to suffer for his name sake. 0 may 
the Lord keep us unto the end ; as only those who are faithful 
unto death, shall have the crown of life." 

This letter is not devoid of interest, and in the spirit and temper 
which pervade it there is much to commend. But it does not jus- 
tify the representation which Dr. Clarke had made of the totally 
dark and benighted state of the Shetland Islands at the time he 
became an advocate for a Methodist Mission there. On the con. 
trary, the Scottish clergy, and the Secession ministers had their 
places of worship there, who, according to Dr. Clarke's own account 
preached Christ's gospel, and wanted nothing but the zeal of the 
Methodists to carry their principles into effect. 

In the month of April 1825, Dr. Clarke was again honoured 
with an invitation to the palace of his Royal Highness the Duke of 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLAP KE, LL. D., F. A. S. 433 

Sussex, to meet the Duke of Hamilton, one of his Royal Higliness's 
oldest friends, and was requested to bring- his son J. W. Clarke of 
the Chapter House with him. He obeyed the summons, presented 
his son, and both of them dined with the illustrious party. Pre- 
vious to dinner being served up, all the company were ushered 
into the room where the manuscripts and early printed books were 
kept. The conversation was what might be expected from such a 
noble and intellectual company, and referred to several points of 
language and criticism. In the autumn of the same year, the 
Royal Duke expressed his pleasure to pay a visit to Dr. Clarke at 
his residence, Haydon Hall, with a view to the inspection of his 
valuable Oriental and other manuscripts. His Royal Highness 
arrived without state about one o'clock, accompanied by his libra- 
rian T. J. Pettigrew, Esq., and was met by Mr. Butterworth and 
his son, and John Caley, Esq., Secretary to the Record Commission. 
Dr. Clarke received his Royal Visitor with that frank politeness 
which best suited the honour conferred. During the time of dinner. 
His Royal Highness entered freely into social and literary conver- 
sation : and almost immediately afterwards retired into the library 
■where his fine taste was amply gratified by the rich store of rare 
and curious manuscripts which it contained. He entered minutely 
into the respective particulars of what was submitted to his inspec- 
tion during the hours he remained there, and did not leave Haydon 
Hall till late in the evening, enjoying tlie feast of reason and the 
flow of soul, and combining both with the dignity of the Prince, 
and the frankness of true greatness. 

During the summer of 1825, Dr. Clarke received a pressing in- 
vitation to go over to Ireland to attend a public Missionary Meet- 
ing at Cork, and to preach in aid of the funds of the Wesleyan 
Foreign Missions. He complied with the request, though his health 
was but little improved and far from being in a perfect state. Going 
by way of Bristol, he sailed from thence in the King George Steam 
Packet, on the 2nd July, accompanied by one of his sons and some 
other friends. After holding the public missionary meeting at 
Cork, and preacliing for its funds, he returned to England by way 
of Dublin. 

It was about this time that the attention ol the friends of the 

3K 



434» MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

British and Foreign Bible Society was much engrossed, by a coH" 
troversy which had arisen respecting the merits of a Turkish version 
of the New Testament that had made its appearance under the 
sanction of that respectable Society, under the supervision of Professor 
Lee, of Cambridge. Dr. Clarke's remote residence in Lancashire 
had almost precluded the possibility of his assisting the Committee 
jn any of its operations ; consequently he was no way cognizant o^^^ 
what was going forwards. The facts however are, that, in the year 
1819, a Turkish New Testament was printed at Paris, from the 
version of Ali Bey, a converted Mahommedan; and the British and 
Foreign Bible Society being in want of a Turkish version for dis- 
tribution in Russian Tartary, they, by and under the advice of 
professor Lee, took a number of copies and forwarded them to Drs. 
Henderson and Patterson, then at St. Petersburgh, acting in the 
capacity of the Society's agents. But no sooner did it arrive, and 
these gentlemen had the opportunity of examining it, than they wrote 
to the Committee complaining of the version, as a very improper 
one, and dissuading from its circulation. Their remonstrance a^ 
first was listened to, and the Society agreed to suppress the work. 
At this time Drs. Henderson and Patterson, were proceeding on an 
exploratory Biblical Mission into Persia. They were on the eve of 
leaving Tiflis for Persia, when information reached them, that, 
by a resolution of the Committee, it was again determined that 
this version should be put into circulation. This resolution, together 
with some others equally obnoxious, produced such an effect on the 
minds of these two agents, that they found themselves compelled to 
abandon the prosecution of their journey, and resign their situations 
as agents of the Society. With a promptitude that did them infinite 
honour, they positively refused to be the medium of distributing a 
work which, while it professed to put into Turkish hands, the New 
Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, was in reality 
a production that would disgrace the merest novice in Oriental 
literature ; a book in which the divine simplicity of the dictates of 
the Holy Spirit was sacrificed at the altar of Mahommedan bombast ; 
in which the very soul of the Christian religion was reduced to the 
vapid dregs of Islamism ; and in which the only living and true 
God wa3 represented as forbidding his creatures to worship him ! 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



435 



Dr. Henderson (now President of Highbury College,) drew up 
and published in 1824, " An Appeal to the Members of the British 
and Foreign Bible Society," in which he gave a view of the history, 
an exposure of the errors, and adduced palpable proofs of the neces- 
sity of suppressing, this Turkish New Testament. *' That the 
Committee" says Dr. H. may be able the more easily to judge of 
the force of my objections, I beg leave to arrange them under the 
following heads : — the mistranslation of proper names — the un- 
necessary use of synonymes : — the want of consistency and unifor- 
mity — false renderings — omissions and additions." 

Under the head of mistranslation of proper names Dr. Henderson 
affirms, that Ali Bey's version outstrips all the translations of the 
Scriptures at present in existence. Thus, instead of uniformly ren- 
dering the Greek Qeos God, by the Arabic Allah, which is perfectly 
intelligible to every Mahommedan — not fewer than ttvelve different 
phrases are substituted for the unadorned simplicity of the original. 
«* The Supreme God"—" The Glorious Majesty"—" The True 
Majesty" — " The Supreme Divinity" — " The Illustrious God" — 
" The Supreme Verity"—" The Illustrious Verity"—" The Good 
God" — " The Supreme Tengri" — The Lord God Omnipotent, is 
rendered, Effendi God Almighty, the Almighty EfTendi God, and 
our Almighty Tengri God Supreme ! I 

This is a specimen of the inflated and bombastic style of Ali Bey's 
version ; but it abounds with other things equally curious and not 
less improper, and this version the learned professor of Arabic in 
the University of Cambridge had the hardihood to recommend to 
the British and Foreign Bible Society, and to vindicate in a pamphlet 
of two hundred octavo pages, in " Remarks on Dr. Henderson's 
Appeal ;" who had said, " there is not a page, nor scarcely a verse, 
that does not contain something or other of an objectionable nature." 

Mr. Thomas Smith, of the Rotheram Academy, being desirous 
of knowing what was Dr. Clarke s opinion on this subject, addressed 
a letter of inquiry to him, in answer to which the Doctor thus writes; 
*' I know scarcely any thing of the controversy you mention. I 
never saw any thing professor Lee wrote on the Turkish Testament; 
nor have I seen Dr. Hendei^on's book. I had left London before 
these things took place. When the Scottish missionaries at Kciras», 



436 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

purposed to print the Turkish Testament, I was requested to get 
a fount of Turkish types cast, adjusted to sorts, so that no letter 
might abound and none be deficient. I drew up a scale of sorts, 
and proved from thenatureof the language, from the different styles 
of Matthew and Luke, of Paul and John, of James and the Apo- 
calpyse, that the letter alif, must occur so many thousand times, 
the letter hetk so many thousands, and so of all the rest in their 
different form of initial, medial, and final ; and then submitted my 
vast sheet to Lord Teignmouth and the Committee, when his lordship 
declared he ' had never seen any thing so complete in his life, and 
thought the labour sufficient to turn the brain of any human being.' 
When this was done, I got punches cut, matrices struck, and a fount 
cast, packed, and sent oS to Karass. On this subject, and on that 
of the translation, a very interesting correspondence took place 
between the late Dr. Brunton and myself. The Testament was 
pridted under his revision and correction at the foot of Mount 
Caucasus. When it was proposed to print the Turkish Bible by the 
British and Foreign Bible Society, the Dutch government was ap- 
plied to for the loan of what was supposed to be a most excellent 
translation existing in a manuscript in the public library at Leyden, 
and it was intimated that the late Baron Von Diez, who had long 
been Plenipotentiary from the court of Berlin to the Ottoman Porte, 
would superintend the printing, &c., and I was requested to corres- 
pond with the Baron on the subject. I did so, and this gave birth 
to some very interesting communications. The Baron Von Diez 
dying, the Leyden manuscript was sent to some person in Paris, 
recommended by Baron de Sacy. I removed to Lancashire in 1813, 
and what became of the business I never heard. This perhaps 
may refer to what you mention. I fear many of the translations 
which have been formed by missionaries, have been hastily done. 
There is not a man under heaven that, after spending two or three 
years in learning a difficult Asiatic language, is capable of transla- 
ting the Scriptures into that language. From my little knowledge, 
1 know some, where, for want of a proper Philological knowledge 
of the tongue, the translations are in several instances false, ridicu- 
lous, and nonsensical. I have gained myself enemies by hinting 
these things to those who refused to be on their guard. I have 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. m, F. A. S. 



437 



earnestly begged Committees not to depend on persons slightly 
versed in different tongues for the translating of the Scriptures. 
* Let them/ said I, ' write and publish tracts, and do all they can in 
this way, till by much reading and conversation with the natives, 
they learn the difficult idioms, government, and collocations of 
words and phrases, &c.' This advice was allowed to be excellent, 
but ' a translation was wanted, and as it was likely to go through 
many editions, they could correct and revise, till it would be fault- 
less.' True ; but while this is going on, what has become of the 
honour of God, and the purity of his word ? " 

About this time Dr. Clarke received a letter from Archdeacon 
Wrangham, making enquiry and requesting to know what had become 
of the new edition of the London Polyglott, and the answer which 
he returned demonstrates how acutely he felt under the failure of 
that enterprise. He tells him he was willing to have done any 
thing in his power, under the direction of the prelates of the 
Church of England to carry it into effect, and a more willing 
slave they could not have found ; he also takes credit to himself for 
thinking that the kingdom could not have produced one who better 
knew the work, and the best and most effectual method of accom- 
plishing it. But, adds the Doctor, "having stood for several years 
yi the market-place, there is neither an employer, nor a fellow- 
workman to be found, and with me it is now the eleventh hour ; 
though I have been standing, in reference to this work, since the 
early morning-tide. This to me is truly astonishing ; not that I 
am not employed, but that in this era of Bibles and Translations of 
the Bible, a standard Polyglott work has not been attempted by 
the British Hierarchy 1 Such a work, from such a quarter, would 
have been a bulwark against Deism, and a relief to many an honest 
sceptic, who, in his painful agitations on the troublous sea of doubt, 
borne hither and thither by boisterous waves and variously con- 
flicting tides, would have been glad of seeing such a safe haven in 
which he might have cast anchor (after satisfactory soundings) on 
so sure a bottom I Had I been a clergyman of the Church, I 
would have sounded an alarm in the Holy Mountain, and have 
blown a long and strong blast on a trumpet which should have 
given no uncertain sound ! If I had ever reason to regret in an 



438 Memoirs of the life, ministry, and writings, 

especial manner, my not being in the orders of the Church, it waa 
on this account. 

" I have often thought of urging my way to the foot of the 
throne, and laying the subject before the King ; there are several 
who would have introduced me, but I was afraid that the simple 
circumstance of my being only a Lay Preacher, might have in- 
jured the business I wished to promote. Never can a more favour- 
able era occur ; money would amply be found, and labourers also, 
had the proper patronage appeared. Nothing was wanting but the 
suffrages of the bishops and clergy of England, and had they come 
forward, it would have been to the endless good of the Church, 
and to their lasting credit. 

AVhen Mr. Pratt's proposal and mine went out, some years 
ago, in reference to the Polyglott, we had several Dissenters, who 
offered to subscribe so much annually, till the work should be 
completed. Among the rest 1 recollect. Dr. Williams, of Rotlieram, 
who promised to assist us by counsel and advice, and to give 
thirty pounds per annum for seven years : Mr. Spear, of Millbank, 
fifty pounds per annum, for the same time; and also Mr. Joseph 
Butterworth, for the like period ; besides others, whose names I 
have forgotten. But the sun of my expectation is now set, and the 
help that I could have afTorded, however little, will soon be past 
account, as I am now on the wrong side of threescore years ! You, 
Reverend Sir, I ever found ready, but we all wanted a Moecenas 
bishop, without whom I should not have wished to move, as my 
heart's desire was, tliat the honour should be with the British 
Church ! But enough of this now nearly hopeless subject — this is 
probably tlie last letter I shall write upon it. 

* Extremum hunc — mihi concede laborem.' " 

Dr. Clarke was at this time rapidly approximating the termina 
tion of his great literary undertaking, viz. his Commentary on the 
Holy Scriptures. The plan on which he brought it out was some- 
what singular : he began with the book of Genesis, and proceeded 
in regular order to the end of Joshua. He then took up the four 
evangelists, and proceeded with the New Testament to the close ; 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 439 

after which he returned to the Old Testament, and so completed 
his arduous task. The following observations occur at the close of 
Malachi's prophecy. 

" In this arduous labour I have had no assistants, not even a 
single week's help from an amanuensis; no person to look for 
common places, or refer to an ancient author, to find out the place 
and transcribe a passage of Latin, Greek, or any other language, 
which my memory had generally recalled, or to verify a quotation: 
the help excepted which I received in the chronological depart- 
ment, from my own nephew Mr. John Edward Clarke ; I have 
laboured alone for nearly twenty-five years previously to the work 
being sent to the press ; and fifteen years have been employed in 
bringing it through the press to the public ; and thus about forty 
years of my life have been consumed : and from this the reader will 
at once perceive, that the work, be it well or ill executed, has not 
been done in a careless or precipitate manner; nor have any means 
within my reach been neglected, to make it, in every respect, as far 
as possible, what the title-page promises — ' A Help to a better 
Undertsanding of the Sacred Writings.' Thus, through the 
merciful help of God, my labour in this field terminates — a labour 
which, were it yet to commence, with the knowledge I now have of 
its difficulty, and, in many respects my inadequate meanSy millions 
even of the gold of Ophir, and all the honours that can come from 
man, could not induce me to undertake. Now that it is finished, I 
regret not the labour. I have had the testimony of many learned, 
pious, and judicious friends, relative to the execution and useful- 
ness of the Work. It has been admitted into the very highest 
ranks of society, and has lodged in the cottages of the poor. It 
has been the means of doing good to the simple of heart, and the 
wise man, and the scribe : the learned and the philosopher, accord- 
ing to their own generous acknowledgments, have not in vain con- 
sulted its pages. For these and all His other mercies, to the 
writer and the reader, may God, the fountain of all good, be 
eternally praised ! 

" Adam Clarke." 

Eastcott, April 17, 1826." 



4-40 MEMOIRS OF THE LITE, MINISTRY, AND WRmNG&, 

It Avas long since well observed by our Christian poet, Cowper, 
that 

" None but an author knows an author's cares, 
Or Fancy's fandaess for the child she bears." 

Every man who knows what belongs to the author&hip of such a 
work as Dr. Clarke's Commentary, must at once admit it to have 
been a most laborious undertaking, sufficient to occupy the time 
and study, the exertions, physical and mental, of a whole life, 
without the incumbrance of any adventitious or extraneous calls. 
He must, therefore, doubt the wisdom of Dr. Clarke in eni^agin^- in 
so vast an undertaking, and at the same time, allowing himself to 
be hooked into the Record Commission, which occupied him for 
ten long years, called him frequently from home, and unavoidably 
broke the chain of his studies. Either of them were of sufficient 
magnitude to demand the combined energies of his mind and body. 
While, therefore, we cheerfully extend our sympathy to him under 
' his sufferings, we are compelled to mingle with it a portion of 
blame on the score of indiscretion. As to the merit of his Com- 
mentary, that is a point which will be variously estimated by dif- 
ferent persons, according to the views they respectively entertain 
of what a Commentary ought to be ; and it is not necessary that 
we should enter upon that question in this place : a better oppor- 
tunity will occur hereafter, when we come to take a review of the 
Doctor's various publications, and of this in particular. The 
account that is given by his family of his trials, difficulties, and 
even anguish of mind, during a few of the last years that the work 
was passing through the press, is truly affecting. " Frequently, 
on entering his study, he was seen with his knees bended against 
the seat of his chair, his paper before him, and the pen in his hand, 
in such earnest communion with the Father of Lights, as not to 
hear the knock of entrance^" Can it then be a matter of surprize, 
that, when the work was actually brought to a conclusion, it was 
not only a subject of thankfulness to himself, but of unfeigned 
rejoicing to each member of the family. The last sentence was 
written on his kness, from which posture he did not rise, till he had 
in the fulness of his heart and soul, offered up his thanksgiving to 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL.D, F. A. S. 411 

Almighty God, who had not only spared his life to bring this 
arduous work to a conclusion, but who had enabled him to labour 
so long and so strenuously for the benefit of his fellow-creatures;—- 
for permitting him to bear such testimony to the truth and mercy, 
manifested in the Divine Oracles, for the recovery of man from the 
evils of his fall, and for providing for, and offering them a full 
salvation from guilt and death, into all the light and liberty of the 
Gospel of Christ Jesus." 

Such is the language in which the family express themselves 
respecting the superlative excellence of the Commentary; and no 
doubt this was natural enough ; but I do not think its highest 
value rests in presenting to its readers a Scriptural representation 
of the economy of man's redemption ; this, however, will come 
under consideration hereafter. The family, consisting of sons, 
daughters, and sons-in-law, celebrated the completion of the under- 
taking, on which they had seen him so long, so laboriously, and 
so anxiously employed, by a festival on an appointed day, to 
which the Doctor and Mrs. Clarke were invited, and at which they 
])resented him with a large silver vase, as a memorial of the termi- 
nation of his Biblical labours, and of their heart-felt joy on the 
occasion. The family dined together at the house of the two 
rldest sons, printers in St. John's Square, Clerkenwell. After 
dinner the proposed offering, covered from the sight, was intro- 
duced and placed at the head of the table. The eldest son then 
rose, and in the name of each and all the family, took off the 
covering, and with an appropriate address, presented it to their 
revered parent. After an interval, during which the Doctor's 
feelings and emotions were too great for utterance, he pronounced 
his benediction upon them all, individually and collectively. The 
eldest son then filled the vessel with wine, which his father raised 
first to his own lips, then to those of Mrs. Clarke's, and afterwards 
bore it to each of the family present. He then put it down, and in 
a strain of the most heart-felt eloquence, addressed his children in 
terms which they are not likely soon to forget. 



3 L 



44)2 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINOB, 



SECTION XX. 

Some account of Dr. Clarke s Journey to the Shetland Islands, a. d. 
1826. — and of a Second visit to the same place, a. D. 1827. 

It is evident from Dr. Clarke's letters to the Missionaries in Shet- 
land, that he had formed the design of visiting those inclement 
regions, '* the Ultima Thule of the ancients, from the very com- 
mencement of the Mission. Hence, writing to one of them, (Mr. 
Raby ) in the spring of the year 1 823, he says, " I have sent otf to you 
about six thousand tracts and pamphlets, and will if God spare me,see 
you in the (ensuing) spring" It was not, however, till he had put 
the finishing touch to his great undertaking, the Commentary, that 
he was able to realize his wishes in respect to this object. This 
was done in April, 1826, and in the following month, he began to 
make preparations for his journey. In a letter to Mrs. Clarke, 
written from Birmingham, while on a Missionary Tour, he tells 
her, " I may be ultimately hindered from going to Shetland ; but 
to all my judgment and feelings, it seems a work, which God has 
given me to do ; I must go on till He stops me. To sacrifice my 
life at the command, or in the work of God is, as to pain or diffi- 
culty, no more to me than a burnt straw ; my life is His, and He 
will not take it away out of the regular course, unless greatly to his 
glory and my good." A few days afterwards, he adds, " I feel very 
poorly, and have no extra strength to depend upon ; and when I 
get to Edinburgh, if I do not feel myself equal to the task of pro- 
ceeding to Shetland, I will relinquish it, with pain it is true, but 
yet with submission to that high authority which imposes the ne- 
cessity, and who does at all times all things well. If I am enabled 
to take the journey fear not for me, for I shall most certainly be 
supported through it ; I am sure God will not bury me in the 
Northern Ocean !" 

It does not appear from any thing upon record, what the imperi- 
ous necessity was which called Dr. Clarke to undertake this peril- 
ous journey, nor yet on what he grounded his confident assurance 
that he should return in perfect safety. We cannot doubt that 
Dr. Coke was as confident that he should not be buried in the Pa- 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 443 

cific Ocean, yet it turned out otherwise. It is probable that Dr. 
Clarke was equally certain that He, in whose hands are the issues of 
life, would preserve him from the ravages of the cholera, whicli he 
seems to have dreaded more than the surges of the Northern Ocean 
— yet we see the event was otherwise determined. But it some- 
how seems to be a notion interwoven with the principles of Metho- 
dism, for its advocates to consider themselves under the superin- 
tendence of a special Providence. It was evidently so with Mr. 
Wesley, and Dr. Clarke probably inherited it from him ; but the 
sentiment is very objectionable, and it is remarkable that, in this 
instance, the Methodists appear to chime in with the Ultra Cal- 
vinists, among whom this kind of language is quite familiar. To 
such as are conversant with the writings of Huntington, this can 
need no proof. I am the more inclined to take notice of this pecu- 
liarity, inasmuch as it does not appear from Dr. Clarke's JouFnal, 
that his visit to the Shetland islands was pregnant with any such 
beneficial results as serve to justify the view which he took of its 
paramount importance. It will be seen in the sequel that it was 
with no little difficulty he got there, and that he had no sooner 
landed than he wished himself back again. 

It appears from the published Journal that he commenced his 
journey on Thursday, June 1, 1826, accompanied by his son John; he 
reached Newcastle-upon-Tyne on the evening of the following day, 
and left it on the 3rd of June for Edinburgh, passing through Aln- 
wick, Haddington, &c., and reached the Modern Athens on the 
evening of Saturday. Here they were joined by Messrs. Mackay 
and Campion, two friends, who intended to accompany them to 
Shetland. In this famous city, they had the misfortune to take up 
their residence in a place which Dr. Clarke thus describes : " Our 
inn is one of the dirtiest I have ever seen : the waiters are dirty ; 
the utensils are dirty; the meat mean, ill-dressed, and very dirty ; 
and to complete the whole, the charges are the most exorbitant I 
have ever met with." They however, remained at it only one day 
and two nights, for on Monday, the 5th, they " settled all matters at 
this villainous inn," they left it and went to private lodgings. On 
enquiry they found that the packet, by which they hoped to have 
taken their passage, had sailed several days, and there was not an- 



/ 

4!44! MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

other in port bound for Shetland ; the consequence was that they 
found themselves completely embargoed for several days. 

Having waited four days, and seeing no hope of getting to the 
Shetlands, Dr. Clarke formed the determination of sailing for the 
Hebrides, that, he might visit Mull, the island of his maternal an- 
cestors. While making preparation for this, the Woodlark, Capt. 
Frembly, a fine cutter engaged in the survey of the Shetland isles, 
together with his Majesty's ship the Investigator, touched at Leith. 
On hearing this, they made immediate applicatil)n to know if the 
Captain would permit four gentlemen who were waiting for a pas- 
sage to Shetland, to go on board of his ship. This, however, could 
not be done ; but after some hesitation he consented to take Dr. 
Clarke and his son, but could not make room for Mr. Mackay or 
Mr. Campion. Though sorely reluctant to leave those worthy 
gentlemen behind, they agreed with the Captain who purposed to 
sail on the following Tuesday, June the 13th. 

They got pretty well on till the 15th, when they came to the 
Pentland Frith, where they were called to encounter a monstrous 
sea, tide conflicting with tide, raising the billows to a fearful height; 
but the wind being pretty fair, the vessel literally cut through all. 
They went on with a strong gale, principally in their favour, till 
they came near to the Fair Isle, when the wind changed directly 
opposite, coming from north-east, and blew a hurricane ; " the sea 
wrought and was tempestuous." They appeared to themselves to 
have arrived at the end of the terraqueous globe, where nature 
existed in all its chaotic confusion and fierce uproar ; there ap- 
peared a visible rage and anger in every wave ; they seemed as if 
contesting with each other which should contribute most to destroy 
and engulph all within the vortex of their action. " Next to God," 
says Dr. Clarke, " we trusted in the soundness of our little cutter 
and in the attention and continual skill, experience, and labour of 
our officers. As to the Divine Being, 

* He in the visitation of the winds. 
Took up the ruffian billows by the top. 
Curling with monstrous heads, and hanging them, 
With deaf'ning clamours in the slippery cloud*.* 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., f. A. S. 



4>i5 



And V slippery' they were, for after appearing- to be suspended 
for a moment, they fell down with such tremendous thunder, as if a 
whole park of ordnance had been discharged at once ; * deep cried 
unto deep at the noise of his water-spouts, all his waves and his 
billows went over us.' At first we reefed all our sails, then struck 
our top-mast, next brought down every inch of canvass upon the 
deck, and then set a small try-sail to steady the ship. In these cir- 
cumstances we were obliged to bear away, no possibility of anchor- 
ing or of seeking port in such horrible contention of the elements, 
and in such dangerous seas ; we continued to ship sea after sea, till 
our little vessel seemed as if on the very eve of being submerged. 
In a short time the angry, sullen wind chopped about, the storm 
became more moderate, and we had at least a fair gale, though the 
sea was still tremendous. We sailed round the Fair Isle, regained 
our true course, the gale settled shortly into a strong breeze, and 
continued so to the end of our voyage. 

** Not far distant from the place where we encountered the brunt 
of the storm, two fishing boats were cast away in this storm ; one 
crew, captain Gray of the Elizabeth sloop, succeeded in saving : all 
the hands of the other boat perished : five of the men were married, 
and I saw the five widows afterwards in Lerwick ; these five widows 
had anaong them twenty-two children, without any kind of provi- 
sion for their support." 

Dr. Clarke and his son arrived at the port of Lerwick on the 17th 
of June. " But oh, the appearance of Shetland ! a continuous series 
of barren hills and mountains — scarcely any cultivation to be seen, 
and perhaps not even in general cultivatable soil : the grass is of 
a brownish green, and the rugged rocks or large districts of peat- 
moss, or heather appearing in most places. It had this day a truly 
horrid appearance: the sea was still very rough, the breeze having 
much freshened, and we seemed to come to behold the termination 
of the terraqueous globe, at its first northern extremity : as in our 
north line of direction there is not beyond Shetland one other foot 
of known land. I could not help exclaiming, ' Who could choose 
this for an abode ?' and on looking around me in ^his dreary bar- 
renness, / seemed to wonder why I had come hither, and could not 
help crying out, ' How shall we get away ?' " 



446 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

Does not this justify the remark of the present writer, in a 
former page, that there was a want of due consideration on the 
part of Dr. Clarke, in volunteering this voyage to the Shetland 
isles ? There was nothing to be done which the missionaries 
already there were not competent to perform. The truth is, that 
the Shetland mission was a species of hohhy with its originator, 
and he could not satisfy himself without participating in its diffi- 
culties and dangers. No sooner had Dr. Clarke got on shore than 
the first object of his concern was, how to make his escape from 
this " fag-end of the creation" — this " abomination of desolation." 
Happily, on enquiry, he found the Noma, an English trader, and 
the only one in the port of Lerwick, had not yet sailed, but was 
gone to collect her cargo of fish, previous to her sailing for Leith. 
He accordingly came to the determination immediately of return- 
ing by her, as the only opportunity they were likely to have for 
many weeks of getting back to England. All this was decided 
upon before they had seen any of their friends, or their arrival was 
even known to the missionaries ! 

At length they proceeded to the chapel-house where they found 
three of the preachers, who had been on the look-out during the 
last three days ; but the vessel dropping in before day-light, they 
had not been perceived. The next thing was to enquire for private 
lodging, the town of Lerwick not affording an inn ! and they were 
forced to take up with an old cold house which did not promise 
much comfort ; but their friends gave them a hearty welcome and 
seemed disposed to do the best they could under their scanty 
means. 

On Lord's-day, June 18th, Dr. Clarke preached for the first 
time among the Shetlanders, taking for his text, Luke xi. 9, 10, 
" Ask, and ye shall receive, &c." The congregation was large, 
respectable, and attentive. He descried in their countenances a 
character of honesty, openness, intelligence, and critical simplicity 
— such as he had rarely met with. The countenance of the Shet- 
lander. Dr. Clarke tells us, has certainly a peculiar cast, both in 
males and females — indicating honesty and trust-worthiness — not 
easily inclined to at a first impression; but when persuaded, firm, 
determined, and inflexible. The eye has a peculiar caerulean, or 



OF THE REV. ADAiVI CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



447 



blue-green glance, like that of the ancient Gauls. This is singular, 
and does not appear except in very solitary cases, either in Scot- 
land or England; but it may be occasionally seen among the 
aboriginal Irish, who are all of the same Gothic or Celtic stock as 
the Scotch Highlanders. It is not the eye itself that is green ; but 
a certain glance of it, in a particular light and direction. With 
the new chapel and preacher's house. Dr. Clarke was pleased ; they 
are handsome buildings, and creditable to the town. 

His description of the customs and manners of the people — their 
modes of agriculture — dwelling-houses — cattle, &c. &c. is interest- 
ing, on which account I shall lay the substance before the reader. 

" The weather continuing moderate, I walked out into the 
islands, in order to have a better view of the inhabitants and their 
manner of life. We met many bare-footed females, each with her 
straw-basket at her back, called her ' Kishey,' formed after the 
manner in which bee-hives are constructed. In these they carry 
bottles of milk, fowls, eggs, live sheep, and calves, for the con- 
sumption of Lerwick. The sheep are remarkably small and lean ; 
the calves of only two or three days old, are to be slaughtered for 
the tables of the rich, for the poor get nothing of the kind. All 
these female peasants, for there are few males, appear to enjoy 
excellent health ; their complexion is in general olive, and their 
hair light coloured and long. The agricultural occupations which 
I principally observed, were those of digging in the fields, and 
cutting, drying, and burning sea-weed to make into kelp. At one 
place we saw eight young girls, each pair having a light hand- 
barrow to transport the weed from place to place ; and these eight 
were under the direction of an elderly woman whom they called 
mistress. As these young ones are hired by the lairds at a certain 
rate per month, at eleven and twelve years of age; an old woman is 
appointed over them by the master, to see that they work, and 
work well. 

" The agriculturists have a miserable soil to cultivate, and 
miserable implements. The Shetland spade is the rudest I ever 
saw ; it is between four and five inches in breadth, the iron part 
most clumsily made, and fitted still worse to a long wooden handle ; 
and at either the right or left side, according to the foot used by 



448 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

the digger, there is an ill-contrived tread, by which means the foot 
presses it into the soil. The blade of the scythe is about fourteeiv 
inches long, and inserted at a right angle into a long handle : as 
their scanty grass is grown among- stones, they can take no sweep, 
so this may be a proper instrument enough 

"In order to get a view of their manner of living, I asked a 
poor cottager who was nursing her child at the door, to permit uie 
to enter; which was readily granted. The place was very low and 
dismal, full of smoke, which, had it not been contrary to the prin- 
ciples of gravity, might have escaped through a hole in the roof; 
but there being no flue, nor any thing like one, it diffused itself in 
all directions, up, down, and laterally. There were two beds in 
the place, and these singular things were like large, slight-made 
boxes, standing upon four small pillars of between two and three 
feet high. There was a sort of sliding door to each, by which the 
occupants could shut themselves in : by being raised upon posts, 
they had a great advantage in saving room, the space under serving 
the purpose of stowing away the culinary utensils." 

While at Lerwick, Dr. Clarke preached a discourse, which was 
subsequently published, under the title of " The Sum and Sub- 
stance of Apostolic Preaching." The text was Col. i. 27, 28, viz. 
" Christ in you, the hope of glory ; whom we preach, warning 
every man, and teaching every man, in all wisdom; that we may 
present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." The sermon was 
dedicated " To the inhabitants of the Shetland isles, and particu- 
larly to the members of the Methodists' Societies in these islands ;" 
and some notice will be taken of it among the Doctor's other 
•writings. 

During his stay in that quarter. Dr. Clarke availed himself of 
the opportunity of making excursions into the interior. Mounted 
on a Shetland pony, and accompanied by his son on another, with 
several other friends, they proceeded to Scalloway, a distance of 
six miles, over mountains and glens, and through ravines — in their 
way to which they met the Rev. Mr. Turnbull, the clergyman of 
the parish of Tingwall, on his journey to Lerwick to pay his re- 
spects to the " Englishers." He politely returned with them to bis 
Manse, where his good ladj kindly regaled them with milk and 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLAKKF, I.L. D., F. A. S. 449 

"Win**, bread, butter, and other hospitable fiire. From Scalloway 
they took a boat which was in waiting to convey them to Walls, a 
sea-voyage of twelve miles. They had six oars, and performed the 
trip in three hours and a half. On their way they often fell in 
with old head-lands, and barren rocks in abundance, where the 
gulls, shaggs, &c. were either amusing themselves by looking over 
the precipices, or drying their feathers. Within half a mile of 
where they landed, a large shoal of whales came into one of the 
bays. The islanders manned all their boats, got behind them, 
drove them into shoal water, and succeeded in killing the whole 
shoal, which amounted to a hundred and one in number ! 

Dr. Clarke was engaged to preach at Walls, which he did on the 
following morning ; and when the hour of assembling arrived, he 
was delighted to see the poor people, mostly females, the men 
being almost entirely engaged in the business of the fisheries, com- 
ing down the hills in all directions to a half finished chapel, to 
hear the word of God. The chapel was filled, but there were fifty 
women to one man!. When service was over, and they had dined. 
Dr. Clarke and his friends proceeded to see these mighty monsters 
of the deep — this vast Akeldema !" One of the persons present 
at the capture and slaughter assured the Doctor, that the water of 
the bay, for a mile distant from the place of attack, was dyed with 
their blood. 

The following description is given of the manner in which this 
wonderful seizure was made and disposed of. Having succeeded 
in driving them into shallow water, where they could not swim 
freely, the Shetlanders attacked them with spears, and even swords, 
and withal so dextrously, that in general they pierced their hearts 
at the first thrust, so that most of them were killed in an instant 1 
About fifty persons were present at the attack, and it is there an 
established custom that each person should share, and share alike, 
of the spoil. Mr. Robinson, a respectable merchant of the place, 
related to Dr. Clarke the following amusing anecdote : — " Hearing 
of the shoal of whales that had entered the bay, five poor women 
got a boat, in which they advanced to the scene of action, hovering 
on its skirts. A large whale, that haa received his death-wound^ 

3M 



450 MEMOIRS OF THE LlFE> MINISTRY> AND WRITINGS, 

and -was striving to regain the ocean, failed : the women perceived 
him, rowed up boldly to him, entangled him, his strength being 
nearly gone, made him fast to their boat, and towed him safely off 
to a landing place near to their own dwelling !" 

There were a few young whales in this immense shoal, and it was 
probably owing to them that the Shetlanders were indebted for this 
rich booty. The young, in general, it seems occasion the capture 
of the old ; for they heedlessly run into the shoal- water, and so 
attached are these monsters to their offspring, that they risk their 
lives to save them. It was mentioned to Dr. Clarke, by a friend, 
that he saw one of the female whales take her wounded young one 
under her breast- fin, and endeavour to make her escape with it. 
He saw another young one, which appeared to be greatly terrified, 
dash itself upon the shore, where it was soon killed : the mother, 
which had been near the shore, had turned and was regaining the 
deep water ; but missing her young one, and finding, no doubt by 
instinct, or smell, that it had gone ashore, she turned again, took 
the same direction, and absolutely dashed herself on shore along, 
side her young, where she also was immediately speared. Dr. Clarke 
examined several of these females, and found two cavities near the 
navel, on each side, in which their teats were included, and which 
they can extrude at pleasure, in order to suckle their young: 
Thus exemplifying the language of the Prophet, " The sea- 
monsters draw out the breast to their young," Lam. iv. 3. The 
poor Shetlanders failed of enjoying the full fruits of this seizure, 
for want of vessels to contain the oil. Some of the people, in the 
hour of intoxication, thought proper to say that ' God had sent this 
shoal offish in honour of Dr, Clarke {!) who had come so far to 
do them good.' This certainly was very flattering, but it was very 
foolish ; and it is to be regretted that the Doctor had not more 
prudence and humility than to record it in his journal ! It was 
among the largest, and it was the earliest, shoal of whales that could 
be recollected by any of the inhabitants. 

It would seem strange in our country to witness a congregation 
of two hundred people, among whom there should be only four 
or five men ; yet such was the case with Dr. Clarke at this time. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LI,.D., r.A.S. 451 

hi the Shetlands. The men were afloat at the fisheries : the 
women were without bonnets of any kind, and their faces generally 
oval. Almost all of them were stout and remarkably healthy, 
though they live in the most dismal huts, or rather hovels, where 
continual smoke renders all things nearly invisible. Their diet is 
chiefly fish — fish for breakfast — fish for dinner — fish for supper — 
fish to fish. " This fact," says Dr. Clarke, " siill farther tends to 
convince me of the healthful ness and nutritiveness of a fish diet; 
and from this we perceive how judiciously the Roman Catholic 
church has acted, in ordaining a forty days' lent or fast upon a fish 
diet ; prescribing also weekly fasts to be kept on the same." This 
is surely strange language to proceed from the pen of a Prqtestant 
minister! The following paragraph, however, is of rather a 
different complexion. " Mr. Hendrie, one of the Lairds, invited 
us to his house to dinner, at Burrastow. We went by boat after 
preaching, and had a plentiful table of every thing but fish, which 
they think too mean to be offered to any genteel stranger : the 
custom in Shetland is to set every thing of food at once upon the 
table — no second or third courses ; and yet I have seldom seen a 
more abundant provision, or a much greater variety : Scotch beer 
and porter, wines and whiskey, were also in plenty." 

After three or four days more spent in visiting these islands and 
preaching in several places with great acceptance. Dr. Clarke re- 
turned to Lerwick, considerably affected with rheumatism in his 
head, and now determined to take the first packet for England. 
They now waited anxiously for the Noma to come in, from taking 
her cargo at the Northern isles. On the 1st July, the weather 
became warm and sultry, beyond what the oldest inhabitants of 
those islands ever remembered. There was scarcely a breath of 
air — and to complete their discomfiture, the packet had twice as 
many passengers as she could accommodate, while her deck was 
filled with lean cattle for the Edinburgh market : on the rich Mid- 
Lothian soil, they soon fatten and become excellent beef. 

On Sunday, July 2nd, Dr. Clarke preached twice in the morning, 
to a large congregation from Luke xiii. 23. 24. " Are there few that 
be saved ?" and in the evening again, from Rom. xv. 4, " Whatsoever 
things were written aforetime, were written for pur learning, &c." 



452( MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS. 



The throng was immense, but the evening was fine, and the windows 
of the chapel being thrown open, many heard who could not gain 
admittance 

So acceptable was the sermon that on the following day, a note 
was presented to Dr. Clarke, from Dr. A. Edmonston, expressing 
his high approbation of it, and wishing it might be published, as it 
was calculated in an eminent degree to add to the Biblical literature 
of Great Britain, and be a never-failing source of important and 
much-required instruction to the inhabitants of these islands The 
Doctor, ever ready to oblige, complied with the request, and the 
discourse was subsequently published, under the title of " God's 
mercy in giving a revelation of his will to man ; and his Providence 
in preserving that Revelation from corruption and decay." It was 
dedicated " to the gentry and inhabitants in general of the town 
of Lerwick." 

Adverse winds prevented the vessel from sailing for several days, 
during which Dr. Clarke's severe indisposition prevented his ac- 
cepting numerous invitations which he received from nearly all the 
chief people of these islands, who called and paid their personal 
respects to him. Presents in abundance were made him, of Shet- 
land stockings and gloves, all of the finest wool, and the most ex- 
quisite texture. One pair of these stockings he himself drew through 
a small sized gold ring ; the wool was nearly as white as snow ; 
some of the gloves were of a very peculiar, almost indescribable 
natural colour. 

Miss Dorothea Primrose Campbell, a poet of considerable merit 
and celebrity in those Northern regions, addressed the following 
complimentary stanzas to Dr. Clarke, with which he appears to 
have been not a little elated. 

** And hast thou, generous stranger, come 
From blooming scenes where nature smilee ; 
And left thine own delightful home. 
To visit Thule's barren isles ? 

What tempted thee to come so far, 
A wanderer from the land of bliss ? 
To brave the elemental war 
Of such a stormy shore as this ? 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



*Twas not the insatiate thirst of gold, 
Nor proud ambition's loftier aim ; 
Nor brighter regions to behold, 
Nor undiscovered lands to claim. 

No ; it was still a loftier aim— - 
'Twas Christian zeal, and Christian lore, 
A bright and never dying flame, 
Pure, holy, harmless from above. 

Blest is the man whose holy breast 
Enshrines this spark of life divine ; 
Blest is his home — his family blest — 
Such bliss belongs to thee and thine. 

Such bliss on earth thy portion be, 
And everlasting bliss above. 
When death shall set thy spirit free 
To live with God in realms of love. 

DOROTHBA." 

Lerwick, July 5th, 1826. 

On the 6th of July, Dr. Clarke and his son took their leave of 
the Shetlanders, and went on board the Noma, which immediately 
set sail for the port of Leith. They had to contend with a heavy 
sea, and almost every passenger on board was sick. " These," says 
the Doctor, " are the strangest seas I have ever seen ; for such im- 
mense and conflicting swells I can 5nd no reason, either in the 
winds or in the tides — I think they are purely electrical ; and as 
that fluid acts by a variety of laws of which we are ignorant, though 
a few of them are known to us; therefore there is no certainty in 
these seas either of wind or weather." On the 7th July, they saw 
a large finner whale, which followed the vessel, swimming round it 
for several hours ; and it once came so close along-side as to blow 
the water on w^ard. It was the hu;?est sea monster they had ever 
beheld, and supposed to be upwards of fourscore feet in length ! 

From the 7th to the 10th of July, the vessel was so greatly be- 
calmed that they made little way and lost their patience. After a vast 
deal of trouble and pains they at last gained the bay of Aberdeen, 
and six of the passengers, among whom were Dr. Clarke and his 
son, hired a mackerel boat to put them on shore. Here the Doctor 



454 MKMDIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



called on his friend Mr. Bentley, professor of Oriental languages, 
in King's College, Aberdeen ; but not finding him at home, he pro- 
ceeded in quest of Dr. Kidd, O. LL. P. of Mareschal College, who 
received them courteously, took them over the University, and 
afterwards dined with them at the inn. The remainder of the day 
was spent in viewing Aberdeen, and in the evening they took their 
places for Edinburgh, which they reached on the 12th July. 

While at Edinburgh, Dr. Clarke received the melancholy tidings 
of the unexpected death of his excellent friend and brother-in-law, 
Mr. Joseph Butterworth, late M.P. for Dover; also of another 
brother-in-law, Mr. James York ; and of his old friend and fellow 
preacher, Mr. Charles Atmore ! This appalling intelligence, could 
not but deeply affect Dr. Clarke, who set off for London with all 
possible speed. 

As the name of Mr. Butterworth has frequently been introduced 
to the reader of these pages, not only as the friend and relative of 
Dr. Clarke, but also as the patron of literature, and the philan- 
thropist, it may not be very much out of place, to add a few ob- 
servations concerning him. To many his death was regarded as 
a public calamity. He had sat in Parliament during several 
sessions, and formed one of a party in the British Senate, wha 
generally took a middle course in politics, between the ministers 
atid the opposition, acting and voting with Messrs. Wilberfbrce, 
Thornton, Stephens, and others, whose great object was to procure 
the abolition of slavery and the slave trade, with various other 
beneficial measures. The writer of these lines had a slight personal 
acquaintance with Mr. Butterworth, and has passed hours with him 
at his house in Bedford Square, besides an occasional correspond- 
fence. He is therefore ready to testify to his great moral worth, 
and excellent character. He cannot, however, help remarking that 
it has always appeared to him a spot in the fair fame of Mr. But- 
terworth, that he could atford a sanction in any way to the scanda- 
lous scenes of riot, and dissipation, and intemperance, ever attendant 
on a contested election. This was the case with him on more than 
one occasion, and he probably owed to it his premature death. 
The Parliament was dissolved in 1826, and having represented the 
borough of Dover, he offered himself as a candidate at the new 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



455 



election, when he was opposed and ousted. The election took 
place in the sultry month of August — he had to stand, during the 
election, with head uncovered upon the hustings, day after day, 
the rays of a vertical sun beating on his head, and his feelings 
unavoidably in a state of excitement — ^he lost the election, returned 
home discomfited— took ill and died ! His friends, who were 
numerous and respectable, deeply bewailed his death — the shops in 
Dover were all closed as on the Sabbath, and the bells of the town 
were kept tolling during the chief part of the day of his funeral, 
which took place in London. 

His funeral sermon was preached by the late highly talented 
Richard Watson, at the Methodist chapel in Great Queen Street, 
Lincoln's Inn-fields, irom Gal. i. 24, " And they glorified God in 
me." Mr. Watson was intimately acquainted with the deceased, 
having for several years been associated with him in the Wesleyan 
Missionary Society, of which Mr. Butterworth was the Treasurer, 
and Mr. Watson the Secretary. Of one whose name has so often 
occurred in these pages, and so connected with that of Dr. Adam 
Clarke, the following short account, extracted from Mr. Watson's 
funeral sermon, cannot be unacceptable := — 

" Mr. Butterworth's life was evidently a life of faith on the Son 
of God ; without the least affectation, for his character was one of 
great simplicity, he appeared ready for every good word and work. 
I would regard his character as strongly marked by the following 
particulars: — It was devotional: to the duties of the closet, prayer 
and meditation on the Scriptures, his attention was strict and 
faithful. The service of his domestic altar was regular and serious : 
there was in his house no guilty shame of bowing the kjiee to God. 
The appointed hour of worship was sacred, and the family circle of 
worshippers opened to receive, not to fly from, ihe presence of 
visitants and strangers. The hour of seven o'clock on the morning 
of the Sabbath, found him in the vestry of his chapel, in the ex- 
ercise of the office of a class-leader — aa office which he had held 
for nearly thirty years, and discharged with a regularity, faithful- 
ness, and aflfection, never to be forgotten by many excellent persons 
still on earth, over whose religious progress he watched ; and by 
many in heaven, to whose preparation for the rest they now enjoy 



456 MEMOIIIW OF TU& LIl E, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



■with God, he so <^reaily contributed. Neither the distance from 
his residence, noi- the most unfavourable weather in the depth of 
■winter, prevenled his punctual attendance at this early hour. 

" His personal reliuion was social ; — it neither confined him in 
retiremetit, nor detained him wholly among the active scenes of 
external life. It is indeed remarkable how a man who lived so 
much for others, and who, exclusive of his parliamentary engage- 
ments, was in the committees, and took so active a part in the 
management of so many public charities, could enjoy so much of 
home. Kindness of heart, a manner at once frank and dignified, 
almost constantly collected around him smaller circles of select, or 
larger companies of more general acquaintance. I have met with 
few men who possessed in so high a degree the great, but rare art 
of leading on an instructive, or a directly religious conversation, 
without stifiiiess dud effort. He made the various circumstances 
and talents of his guests to contribute their part to the general 
edification, — led each to converse on those subjects with which he 
was most familiar, and thus placed the whole at ease with them- 
selves and with each other. To the young he was especially and 
attractively benign, affectionately affording them his counsel, 
stimulating them to exertion, and showing a solicitude for their 
best interests, the more impressive and influential, as it was free 
from all austerity, and carried with it the soft and penetrating in- 
fluence of an unaffected !)enevolence. To these particulars I must 
add Mr. Butterworth's truly catholic spirit. Without laxity in his 
religious opinions, hohling with tenacity the leading doctrines of 
orthodox Christians, the minor differences of party were no check 
upon the flow of brotherly affection. In this respect his mind had 
a truly noble bearing; few men have had a more extensive inter- 
course with what is called the religious world ; and wiien persons 
of varying sentiments met at his social board, the voice of con- 
troversy never disturbed the harmony of feeling which united all 
as the followei^ of the same Divine Saviour, and the heirs of the 
same immortal hopes. 

In his personal character, our departed friend exhibited zeal: — 
The Stranger's Friend Society — The British and Foreign Bible 
Society — and the Missions, — all of which, from almost their com- 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 457 

mencement, called forth his liberality, his time, and his attention ; 
of the latter he was for several years the Treasurer, and Chairman 
of its Annual Meetings. To these instances of his zeal, must be 
added his general benevolence. One day in each week he ap- 
pointed to receive at his own house the applications of such as 
needed pecuniary relief, or advice and assistance in various ex- 
igencies. His servant, on being once asked, how many petitions 
he had on that day admitted, answered, * Nearly a hundred.' Into 
all these cases he entered, in order to make his charities at once 
discriminating and efficient. The stranger in a strange land, 
found in Mr. Butterworth a ready and often an eflfectual friend. 
His intercourse with foreigners was frequent and extensive ; where 
relief was necessary, it was given; where not needed, the hospitality, 
his friendly counsel, protection, or assistance in accomplishing the 
various pursuits of business, literature, or curiosity, were afforded 
with a blandness of manner, and a warmth of interest, which have 
impressed upon the heart of many a foreigner sentiments favour- 
able to the character of the country, and honourable to the Chris- 
tian name." 

Not long after Dr. Clarke s return home from the Shetland 
islands, he was favoured with another visit from his Royal High- 
ness the Duke of Sussex, who honoured him with his company to 
dinner at Haydon Hall. The Duke arrived as early as two o'clock, 
and immediately on his arrival retired into the library, where he 
passed several hours in examining some Hebrew manuscripts 
which had recently come into the possession of Dr. Clarke, after 
the following manner : — The manuscripts, ten in number, formerly 
belonged to a Dutch family of the name of Vanderhagen, and had 
been a sort of heir-loom for many generations, as one member of 
the family had always been educated for an ecclesiastic, and to him, 
by agreement, they necessarily reverted on the demise of his pre- 
decessor in the church. The manuscripts had never been coliated, 
but are the identical ones which Dr. Kennicott describes in the 
introduction to his Bible, as having used every argument and 
entreaty to procure a sight of, but in vain. About five years pi ior 
to this visit, a Dutch catalogue of books was sent to Dr. Clarke, 
who, on looking it over, was struck on finding these very maim- 

3 N 



458 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

scripts offered for sale. He instantly applied to his bookseller, 
and directed him to purchase them for him at almost any price. 
The bookseller went over to Holland, attended the sale, and pur- 
chased them. When the sale was over, some of the literary men 
present requested to know from the bookseller who the purchaser 
was ; and being told they were bought for Dr. Clarke, they ex- 
pressed themselves highly gratified, since they must go out of the 
country, that they had fallen into the possession of an individual, 
who not only knew their value, but also was certain to apply them 
to the most important purposes of biblical literature. From these 
gentlemen the bookseller was informed, that the Vanderhagen 
family, being greatly reduced in their worldly circumstances, and 
none of its immediate branches having embraced the ecclesiastical 
profession, were induced to part with the books which had to them 
thus lost both their interest and their importance. 

Curiosity naturdly prompts one to wish to know something 
more particular respecting these manuscripts ; but the family of 
Dr. Clarke appear to preserve a studied silence respecting them. 
All that we are told is, that " the above-mentioned Hebrew MSS. 
together with, the extensive MS. library of Dr. Clarke, amounting 
to near one thousand volumes, are now in the possession of his son, 
Mr. J. B. B. Clarke, M. A." That they are upon subjects of bibli- 
cal literature ^eems a fair inference from the hints which are 
thrown out by Dr. Kennicott — and from his anxious wish to be 
favoured with an opportunity of examining them, while engaged 
on the publication of his Bible. Nothing has transpired concern- 
ing the name or names of the writer ; and as they came into the 
possession of Dr. Clarke ten years before the time of his deceeise, 
and while he was engaged in revising his Commentary for a new 
edition, it seems not an unreasonable supposition, that, had he 
found in them any critical remarks or observations, tending to 
illustrate and improve his great work, he would avail himself of 
them, and give his readers the benefit. 

In the month of January, 1827, Dr. Clarke had a near escape 
from losing his life, by being thrown out of his barouch on a dark 
night, as Jie was returning from town. To reach his. own house, 
fronj Pinner, he had to ascend a hill, in doing which, the horse 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



459 



set off on a quick trot, which he speedily changed into a gallop. 
Turning a point in the road, the wheel of the carriage struck 
against a bank, by which means Dr. Clarke was projected forward 
with such violence as to almost cleave his head asunder. In two 
seconds more, the barouch was overturned, with a tremendous 
crash, and, by this second concussion, he was nearly rendered life- 
less. His face and nose were frightfully cut ; his arm and several 
of his ribs, with both his legs, severely hurt ; and his whole frame 
so exceedingly shaken, that, considering his age, it is surprizing he 
survived it. The carriage was dashed almost to pieces ; the man 
who drove the vehicle, was thrown off the box upon a hedge, the 
thorns of which scratched him severely, but did not otherwise 
injure him. It was some time before Dr. Clarke entirely recovered 
from the effects of this shock. 

In the beginning of March, 1827, he opened a place of worship, 
which he had fitted up adjoining his own residence, Haydon Hall, 
and though he had a chaplain ready to preach, after he had per- 
formed the reading and prayers, yet, he " took courage and kept 
the pulpit himself, preaching for an hour, when all listened with 
ri vetted attention. At the conclusion, he gave out that hymn, 

** Come let us join our cheerful songs, 
WitU angels round the throne, &c.'* 

which two or three of the friends, who had come to the opening, 
sung to the " Old Hundredth" tune : the effect was indeed noble, 
for its majestic notes were skilfully applied to this appropriate 
hymn.* 

He also set on foot a Sunday school with great success, and thus 
promoted the moral cultivation of the neighbourhood. Throughout 
the remainder of this year, Dr. Clarke's health continued in but an 
indifferent state, so that he rarely preached more than once on the 
Lord's day ; but, he went on several " begging expeditions," on 
which occasions he spared no labour either bodily or mental. 

* This must have been a strange affair, if there be not some mistake in it. 
The reader will recollect, that the hymn is in common metre, and the tune in 
long. It must consequently require no ordinary skill to adapt the one to the 
Other, and the " us," who sang> must hare beeo confined to the " two or three! !'* 



4)60 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

At the coming in of the year 1828, we find the Doctor encou- 
raging something very like the doctrine of Vigils. It had been 
his habit from a boy to " watch-in the New year ; not only by 
deep reflection, but in the spirit and attitude of devout prayer." 
Generally he had observed it by publicly assembling in a place of 
worship, with those who habitually met for preaching, exhortation, 
and prayer, at that season. This is a practice peculiar to the Me- 
thodists, or if any others join in it, I believe the Reman Catholics 
are the only people. If not wholly superstitious, it must fall under 
the denomination of " will worship," concerning which the apostle 
Paul tells us that, it " has a shew of wisdom," — but it is merely a 
shew; there is an affectation of " humility and neglecting the body," 
— and the holy apostle solemnly warns Christians against such 
things : " Touch not, taste not, handle not — all such things perish 
with the using." Col. ii. 21 — 23. They have their origin in what 
the scriptures term fleshly wisdom," or the wisdom of this world, 
which is foolishness with God ; it busies itself with adding to the 
precepts of the gospel, by the doctrines and traditions of men, 
which never fail to turn them away from the truth, as we may see 
exemplified in the " holy, catholic, apostolic church of Rome," pro- 
fanely so called I And, by the way, we may lay this down as a 
never failing maxim, that wherever we meet with professors of re- 
ligion refining upon the Gospel rules of holiness, we may be certain 
to find them neglecting some of the plain commands of Christ and 
his apostles. These unauthorized practices, of which there are not 
a few among the Methodists, are justly condemned by all sound 
Protestants, and it is distressing to see such a man as Dr. Adam 
Clarke yielding his sanction to them. Thus he writes to his 
daughter, January 1, 1828. 

" Most of our people went to chapel last evening to hold the 
watch-night : mother was not well enough to watch-in the new year, 
so I kept watch by myself in the parlour, and was in solemn prayer 
for you all, when the clock struck twelve, and for some time after. 
Even to watch by myself I found to be a good thing ; I felt that it 
might be the last watch-night I might ever celebrate. I remained 
up till the preacher and our people returned from chapel : 1 had an 
excellent fire and a good supper for them ; I made them sit down 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



461 



I served them myself: they were pleased, and thus we were 
all pleased." 

What a fund of remark would this short paragraph afford, were 
this the place to engage in it ! To pray for his family is no doubt a 
moral duty, and incumbent on every parent, even as it is the duty 
of every individual to pray for him or herself. But is it possible 
that Dr. Clarke could entertain the notion that his engaging in that 
duty from half-past eleven to half-past twelve on the night of the 
thirty-first of December, would be more acceptable to God, or 
render his prayers more available, than if offered up during any- 
other hour of the day or night which occurred in all the interme- 
diate space of the three hundred aa^ sixty-five days that make up 
the year ? One blushes at contemplating the weahfiess and imper- 
fection of our common nature — Verily, every rii&n at his best 
estate is altogether vanity !" What would an apostle say on such 
a subject? No doubt, what one of them formerly said to the Ga- 
latians, ch. iv. 10, 11. " Ye observe days and months and times 
and years :^ I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed on you labour 
in vain." 

About the middle of February, Dr. Clarke began to make pre- 
parations for another voyage to Shetland. He did not think he 
had completed his work in that quarter — some things remained to 
be done for that interesting people, which he thought no one could 
do but himself. He readily admitted that the preachers stationed 
there were faithful and laborious men, and that God had honoured 
them in their work. Yet still, he could not leave matters wholly in 
flieir hands. He had suffered much in his former voyage, both in 
sailing and travelling in those northern regions ; but his solicitude 
was extreme for the ultimate success of the Mission. He had en- 
couraged the building of numerous chapels — missionaries were 
multiplied — societies were formed in almost every island, and the 
object was regarded by him to be one of deep interest. " To estab- 
lish these societies on their proper foundation ; to see that their 
discipline was fully regarded, and that all the institutions and regw 
lations of Methodism icere properly recognized," determined Dr. 
Clarke to pay them a second visit, in order that, as he expressed 
himself, " in case of his death tliey might be enabled to go on well 



MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



by themselves." The family were averse to his going, but Shet- 
land lay near his heart, and was bound up with the deepest and 
most affectionate feelings of his nature. 

In the month of April he was attacked with a rheumatic fever, 
which laid him up for several weeks in Bristol, and prevented his 
paying a visit to Cornwall as he had purposed and promised to 
do, and it was not until the last day of that month that he was 
sufficiently recovered to return to town. In the beginning of 
Juno he began to put his Shetland project into execution. A 
small sloop, of seventy tons burden, was engaged for the purpose, 
and fitted out in the most judicious manner, with every convenience 
that could be expected from suchsa vessel. On this occasion he was 
accompanied bK his friends, Everett and Loutit, preachers, Mr. J. 
Campion, of Whitby, Mr. Read, of Salford, Mr. John Smith, his 
son-in-law, and his own son Theodoret. 

The party went on board the Henry, at the port of Whitby, on 
the 17th of June, and on the 21st, saw the sun rising between two 
and three o'clock, with no previous night. Before twelve they de- 
scried land, which turned out to be Sumburgh-head, in Shetland. 
By six o'clock that evening, they landed at Lerwick, having com- 
pleted the voyage in eighty hours. On the following day, which 
\7as the Sabbath, Dr. Clarke preached at ten in the morning, Mr. 
Loutit at two, P. M., and Mr. Everett at six, all to crowded congrega- 
tions. The party continued among the Shetlanders from the 21st of 
June to the 7th of July, during which period of eighteen days, they 
made excursions to most of this group of islands, preaching as often 
as they could get a congregation, and dispersing largesses of money 
and clothing with no slack hand among the poor and wretched in- 
habitants, all of which was gratefully received. The Doctor records 
in his Journal, under date of June 24th, " With the simple manners, 
open unsuspicious countenances, and frankness of these islanders, 
I am more and more pleased. Here God is performing a great 
work, the greatest I have ever seen ; but it is only yet in its com- 
mencement. On examination of the societies, I find that there 
are in Lerwick four hundred and twenty, in Walls four hundred and 
Afty-five, North Mavin one hundred and fifteen. Yell two hundred 
and fifty; besides several in the Fair Isle^ and in Foula, to the 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



463 



fimx)unt of two hundred more." Of course these numbers are to be 
taken as indicative of the amount of individuals in the Methodist 
Society, as it is called ; but it is so loosely expressed as to be ca- 
pable of another interpretation. 

Dr. Clarke manages, in compiling his Journal, to supply his 
readers with a goodly portion of agreeable information, respecting 
both the customs and manners of the inhabitants of these islands, 
the price of provisions, and other interesting particulars. Those 
who have read Dr. Johnson's Tour to the Hebrides, in company 
with Mr. Boswell, may possibly recollect the Doctor's pleasant 
anecdote respecting the boast that was made at one of the islands, 
of the extraordinary cheapness of provisions in that quarter, in 
proof of which it was mentioned that several (I think a dozen) 
eggs might be had for one penny. The Doctor, however, 
gave a somewhat different interpretation of the matter — the fact 
proved, said he, " was, not that eggs were many, but that pence 
were/m\" Dr. Clarke illustrates the same point in the following 
paragraph. 

" June 30. — Our business being done in this quarter (Burra Voe, 
in the island of Yell ) I am anxious to sail out, but the wind is right 
a-head. Several boats are coming along-side with milk, butter, 
eggs, fish, and fowl. They offered us a young calf for one and six- 
pence — a hen for four-pence — a cock for two-pence — milk a penny 
per wine-bottle — eggs two-pence per dozen — piltocks (a fish less 
than a herring) for a penny per score — beautiful red cock-codlings 
for a half-penny a-piece. Money is very scarce — " A poor fisher- 
man is just come along-side, with a halibut, a ling, and a codling: 
for the halibut, I have given him one shilling and six-pence — all he 
asks, though the fish weighs thirty pounds, and is the finest I have 
€ver seen : and for the young ling and cod I have given him one 
penny ; these three were all caught about half an hour ago. The 
Shetlander has no ill-luck, who pulls up one and six-pence in one 
haul, on one hook," 

Dr. Clarke's propensity to indulge in self-complacency, is one of 
the most prominent traits in his character; indications of it meet us 
at almost every turn. The following is one among a thousand 
iastances in proof of this foible : " While the vessel or boat lay in 



464 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

Balta Sound, a fine harbour — several gentlemen came on boarcl- 
with kind invitations to go a-shore and lodge. From Mr. T. Ed- 
monston, I received an invitation not only to make his house my 
home while I continued in the Sound, but also to preach in his 
house. The latter I most cheerfully embraced and went on shore. 
When I entered his dining room, he said, 'Sir, in laying this lan.,e 
bible on the table, I casually opened on this place, and laid my 
finger on this verse : Arise, shine, for thy light is come and the 
glory of the Lord is risen upon thee,' Isa. Ix. i. I said ' it is a good 
word,' and immediately took it for my text, and preached on it for 
an hour and a quarter. There were a hundred and fifty persons 
present, who all heard with deep attention. Mr. Edmonston was 
himself amazed to think hoiv a subject could be so treated on so 
short a notice ! !" This ebullition of vanity will not bear comment ; 
at any rate I must abstain from it. 

July 4th — My companions and self went all to dine with Mr. 
T. Edmonston. Never was hospitality more emphatically mani- 
fested. The conversation was truly edifying ; and by the special 
wish of the family, I discoursed on the intention of God in the in- 
carnation of His Son, and considered the question, ' Did Jesus die 
for every man ?' I then proved that the benefits of Christ's incar- 
nation must extend to the whole human race ; for it was the na. 
ture of man that Christ assumed ; and the benefits of what he did 
and suffered in human nature, must extend to all that ever did or 
can partake of that nature ; — that, from the infinite dignity of our 
Lord's nature [query person ?] there must be an infinite merit in 
the sufferings which He endured, and the de'ath which He died for 
man. Of one flesh are formed all the kindreds that dwell upon the 
eai'th : He became man, in order to make an atonement for man ; 
and as there is but one nature, so in that one nature He suflfered 
death, the just for the unjust ; and consequently He tasted death 
for every man ; and through Him every human soul may be saved ; 
and thus are left without excuse, if they will not come unto Him. 
that they may have life eternal. * Conticuere omnes,' " says the 
Doctor ; " the company heard with deep attention, and evident in- 
terest, my arguments on the subject." 

That Dr. Clarke was listened to with fixed attention may be 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A.S. 465 

easily credited, but that proves nothing in reference to the truth of 
the doctrine on which he harangued the audience* The intention 
of God in the incarnation of his Son— -and also of the Son, in lay^ 
ing down his life, are points that can never be satisfactorily made 
out by any chain of reasoning, however recondite and cogent. 
We know nothing about the extent of the death of Christ, but 
■what we gather from the Holy Scriptures ; and they are far from 
stating the doctrine in the light that Dr. Clarke does in the fore- 
going paragraph. One thing is demonstrable at first sight, that if 
Christ died for every child of Adam, either all must be finally 
saved, (which is contrary to the express declaration of the word 
of God, which declares that " broad is the way that leadeth to 
destruction and many there be which go in thereat,") or that such as 
are saved must owe their salvation to something- else than the death 
of Christ. But here agam the Scriptures meet us with the most 
positive assurances, that all for whom Christ died shall infallibly 
be brought to glory, John x. 28. ch. xvii, passim, Rom. viii. 
32, &c. Rev. V. 9. It may be observed that in the above quota- 
tion. Dr. Clarke lays much stress upon the fact of Christ's assump- 
tion of human nature — a fact which no Christian will dispute; for 
without it he could not have suflfered and died for the redemption 
of his guilty people — and from hence he proceeds to argue, that 
as it was the nature of man which Christ sustained, so the benefits 
of what he did and suffered in human nature, must extend to all 
that ever did, or can, partake of that nature ! But this is what logi- 
cians call a non sequitur, it is a gratuitous assumption ; it is more, 
it is a gross fallacy. According to that hypothesis, Christ took 
part in flesh and blood no less with the seed of the serpent, than 
with the childi'en which God gave him to redeem, even " the many 
sons whom he, as the captain of salvation, finally brings to glory." 
But if we attend to the Scriptures, we shall find that they are far 
from countenancing that way of speaking ; for, instead of saying 
that Christ took hold of the whole human race, in contradistinction 
from fallen angels, the apostle writes thus : " Verily he taketh not 
hold of angels, but of the seed of Abraham he taketh hold." More^ 
over it is evideni; from the scripture, that Christ died for the sanc- 
tification of all those with whom he took part in flesh and blood, 

30 



4-66 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

And " as he who sanctifies, and they who are sanctified by his death, 
are all of one Father, he is not ashamed to call them brethren, say- 
ing, I will declare thy name unto my brethren ; and again. Behold, 
I and the children whom God has given me. Forasmuch then as 
the children, (or heirs of salvation, Heb. i. 14.) were partakers of 
flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, 
that through death he might destroy him that had the power of 
death, that is, the devil," Heb. ii. Now, from all this it is plain, 
that Christ's brethren, the seed of Abraham, or the many sons he 
brings to glory, are no other than the children which God gave 
him — those with whom he took part in flesh and blood — the sheep 
for whom he laid down his life, and to whom he will certainly give 
eternal life, for they are the purchase of his death, Rom. viii. 
29—32 

The inseparable eternal connection, which God himself of his 
sovereign grace and good pleasure, hath established between Christ 
and those for whom he was born and died, is set at nought upon 
Dr. Clarke's hypothesis, as a thing which may be frustrated 
in reference to many, through some defect in their ability or will ; 
and all this, in order that the stress of our salvation may be laid on 
a connection we are called to make between Christ and us ; and 
then, the province of what is falsely called grace, is to enable us 
to make this connection. This assisting grace, according to many, 
is commonly bestowed on those who ask it, or are some way de- 
sirous of it : while yet to avoid too flatly clashing with the Scrip- 
tures, exceptions are allowed. And here take place all the hocus- 
pocus tricks about grace alternately prompting or seconding our 
eflbrts to make this connection, with suitable directions for obser- 
ving in some corner of our averse will, some hopeful disposition 
arising to meet that grace, or produced by it. But, alas, how very 
difi*erent is the current language of the bible from all this. Surely 
those who hold such sentiments must entertain a very defective and 
superficial view of human depravity and of the nature of conver- 
sion, as well as of the greatness of that power that is necessary to 
effect it ; otherwise they could never imagine that any of the fallen 
race of Adam, if left to the determination of their own will, would 
ever turn to God. Christ has declared, *^ no man can come to me^ 



OF THE REV, ADAM CLARKE, X.L. D., F. A. 8. 467 



except the Father who hath sent me, draw him." Conversion is 
represented as a new creation ; and to be tlie effect of that divine 
power that raised Christ from the dead ; and this divine power is re- 
presented as exerted not only in ilJuminating the understanding", 
but also in determining the will ; for God's people are made willing 
in a day of divine power : for it is God that worketh in them both 
to will and to do of his good pleasure. Accordingly the promises 
of the new covenant or covenant of grace, invariably run in this 
style; " I will and they shall." For instance, " A new heart will 

1 give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take 
away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an 
heart of flesh." — " They shall all know me from the least to the 
greatest." These and many other similar passages clearly shew, 
that God removes the natural aversion of the will, and gives it a 
prevailing inclination to comply with wh it he requires ; and to 
suppose that, after all, it remains in a state of indifference, and at 
full liberty to resist, is a flat contradiction. All the promises re- 
specting the efficacious grace of God in the conversion of sinners 
are nothing but the revelation of his eternal purpose, which cannot 
be frustrated. Accordingly the Saviour says, " All that the Father 
giveth me shall come to me", that is, shall certainly come ; but then 
he shews that they do not thus come of themselves, but by being 
drawn of the Father : No man can come unto me, except the 
Father which hath sent me draw him ;" and he further shews that 
this drawing ( which he explains of divine teaching) is effectual. 
" Every man, therefore, that hath heard, and that hath learned of 
the Father Cometh unto me," John vi. It is easy to enlarge on 
this subject, were it necessary ; but enough has been said to shew 
how different my views are on this doctrinal point, and I think the 
scriptures also, from those of Dr. Clarke. His conditional grace 
does not reach the case of fallen sinners, who are utterh unworthy, 
without strength, and dead in trespasses and sins, but extends only 
to such as are supposed to qualify themselves for it by performing 
the condition — consequently it is not that grace which the apostle 
Paul constantly opposes to our works, and which excludes all 
boasting on the part of the creature, Rom. xi. 5, 6. Eph. ii. 4, 11. 

2 Tim. 1 9. I would apologise for this episode did I not think 
that it was justified by the importance of the subject discussed. It 



468 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



li the pivot on which the Armiuian system turns, and it is of so 
peculiar a nature as to affect our views of the character of the 
Most High, and to spread its influence through every part of the 
Christian doctrine. 

On Lord's day, July 6th, Dr. Clarke was at North wick,* the 
farthest town or habitation north, of the British dominions : N. Lat. 
61. Here he preached from Job xxii. 21, 22. '* Acquaint now 
thyself with him and be at peace, that thereby good may come 
unto thee." On this line of latitude, he tells us, there was no other 
sermon preached on that day, " between this spot and the North 
Pole. There was a press of people present : but and ben, parlour, 
kitchen, and barn, which opened into the latter, were full, and 
many on the outside. I felt great power in explaining, and enforcing 
the exhortation. I was too much heated to attempt to mount a 
pony they had brought for that purpose, and consequently I re- 
turned on foot over the hills, accompanied by six other people who 
had come sixteen miles to hear the preaching. I took them on 
board to dine, and they are just gone off in our boat to regain the 
shore, most deeply affected. At first they began to sigh heavily — 
then to weep — then to mourn — and then all burst forth into a most 
distressing lamentation, sorrowing most under the conviction that 
they would in all probability see our face no more ! This scene 
was more than I could bear." 

It was very natural for the good Doctor to feel a little elation of 
spirits on reflecting that a kind Providence had for once, conveyed 
him to the far-famed Ultima Thule, of the ancients, and, at what 
-was formerly regarded as " the world's end," allowed him the grati- 
fication of publi^ing the glad tidings of salvation. It was some- 
thing for him to converse about as long as he lived. It is, therefore, 
much easier to find an apology for the complacency in which he 
indulges on this score, than it is for his conduct in misleading the 
minds of 'the poor benighted inhabitants of those islands by his 
consecrating their meeting houses, dedicating them to the service, 

* Or, NorwykCy according to the orthography of Pinkerton's Geography, in 
which the reader will find an excellent map exhibiting the relative positions cA 
all the places mentioned by Dr. Clarke in his Journals. Vol. 2. 4to. edition. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 469 

worship, and glory of the ever blessed Trinity — laying the founda- 
tion stone of a building, with all the solemn pomp of a King Solomon, 
or a Pope, Cardinal, Archbishop, or mitred clergyman of the 
church of Rome — as though we were still living under the dispen- 
sation of types and shadows, or as though there was the least 
sanctity in brick and mortar, whatever might be the purposes to 
which it was appropriated. It is really grievous to trace such 
mummery in the nineteenth century of the Christian era, and much 
more so to find it countenanced and encouraged by such a man as 
Adam Clarke! 

Dr. Clarke and his companions, after a voyage of six days from 
the time they sailed from Lerwick, landed at Whitby, on the 22nd 
of July ; four days afterwards he reached London, where he re- 
mained two days at the house of his son-in-law, Mr. Smith, of 
Stoke Newington, and on the 28th arrived at his own house. Hay- 
don Hall, having been absent six weeks. 



SECTION XXL 

Retrospect of Dr. Clarke's minor productions, and Jkigitive pieces. 

Having traced the narrative of Dr. Clarke's eventful and laborious 
life, from his birth to within a few years of his decease, we shall now 
revert back for the purpose of noticing a little more particularly 
than has yet been done, such of his published pieces as are upon 
sale, accompanied with a few miscellaneous observations on their 
design and tendency. This, however, must be done without regard 
to the strict chronological order in which they first appeared ; for 
as most of them have gone through several editions, that exact 
order cannot be easily made out. I begin with — 

A Concise View of the Succession of Sacred Literature, in a Chrono- 
logical arrangement of Authors and their works, from the invention 
of Alphabetical Characters, to the year of our Lord 1445. 

This, which deservedly ranks among the most useful of Dr. 
Clarke's productions, first made its appearance in the year 1807, 



470 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



in a duodecimo volume, but brought down the history no further 
than the year of our Lord 345. He had intended to follow it up with 
a second volume at an early period, and had made large collections 
lor that purpose ; but the multiplicity of his engagements, prevented 
\iim from executing his purpose, and after a lapse of more than 
twenty years, the former edition having been long smce exhausted, 
he recast the whole with many corrections and additions, and re-pub- 
lished it in an octavo volume, announcing at the same time a Con- 
tinuation af the subject from that period to the time specified, viz. 
1445, at which time the art of printing commenced. This second 
Part, was transferred to the hands of his son, Mr. J. B. B. Clarke, 
M. A. a clergyman of the church of England, into whose keeping the 
Doctor had delivered up all his papers and plans relative to the 
undertaking, and whom he considered to be amply qualified to 
conduct it with credit to himself, and profit to the reader." The 
second volume has accordingly appeared, since the father's death ; 
but this is not the place for discussing either its merits or defects. 
Suffice it to say, tliat a work, enriched by the ample collections and 
contributions of Dr. Clarke, and placed under the revision of a son 
of competent learning and talents could scarcely fail of meriting the 
regards of a discerning public. 

In the preface to the first volume. Dr. Clarke informs us that he 
bad two objects in view and by which he was guided in compiling 
the work. The first was to shew that, from the time in which it had 
pleased God to begin to reveal his will to man, there had been such 
an uninterrupted succession of additional Revelations till the whole 
of the Sacred Canon was completed ; and such constant reference 
made to this Revelation by learned paen (both enemies and friends) 
in all ages, that it was impossible any part could be lost or any 
added, without the fact being noticed by some of those who were 
interested in its destruction or preservation. From this the antiquity 
of the scriptures may be fairly deduced ; they are no forgery nor 
of late date — they can be traced up to the very time and persons of 
•which they treat ; and can be proved to be the same now, they 
•were then ; and thus the integrity of the Sacred Oracles may be 
ascertained, as well as their authenticity and antiquity. This forms 
no mean argument in vindication of the divine authenticity of the 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



475 



that in a variety of instances, instead of a few meagre dates and a 
general character of the person, we have a somewhat copious history 
of him and his writings. 

To have enlarged to any considerable extent on the lives and 
characters of the inspired writers — the prophets, evangelists, and 
apostles — would, in this volume, ha\^e been out of place, seeing it 
would interfere with his Commentary ; but, in his account of the 
lives and writings of the Fathers of the Christian church, he has 
been in many instances commendably copious. Among the latter 
I may particularly recommend to the reader's notice, his account of 

Clemens Alexandrinus, a. d. 194. The analysis which he has 
given of this learned writer's work entitled the Paedagogue, and 
also of his Stromata, or Miscellanies, cannot fail to interest the 
reader. The former is a delineation of the Christian life, in which 
he inveighs against gluttony and luxury, and strongly recommends 
u vegetable diet. He draws a most odious picture of a glutton, 
hanging over every dish, peeping into it, and tasting every thing, 
and cramming his belly like a wallet — recommends one meal a day, 
or two at the utmost ; a breakfast of dry bread without liquids, and 
a supper in which milk, cheese, honey, olives, &c. may be used. 
Of wine he recommends a moderate use, and that it be mingled 
with water, quoting the opinion of Artorius, that no more drink 
should be taken with food than what is sufficient to moisten it, in 
order to assist digestion — a regimen strongly recommended by the 
late Mr. Abernethy. Clement condemns the practice of loud 
and immoderate laughing ; in women it is " the laugh of a harlot — 
among men, that of a debauchee." He condemns the use of soft 
and costly beds, advises men to take sleep sparingly, if they wish 
for long life, and to take light suppers, that the body may be re- 
freshed, and the mind undisturbed by idle visions, and distracting 
phantasms, &c. He advises that the soul, not the body, should be 
adorned, and God, the supreme object of beauty, should be contem- 
plated. In his Stromata, Clemeut treats of the utility of philo- 
sophy to a Christian — mentions the origin of arts and sciences, and 
gives a history of philosophy among the Greeks and other nations, 
and contends that the Hebrews were the fountain whence all these 
excellencies sprang. He observes that, in speaking concerning' 



473 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

the Teutonic, or ancient German ! Conjectures of this kind are as 
useless as they are endless and uncertain." 

Dr. Clarke considers the Decalogue, or two tables of the Law, 
written by the finger of God himself, about the year of the world 
2513, to have been the first exhibition of alphabetical characters; 
consequently with thai he commences his Chronological Succession 
of Sacred Literature, one thousand four hundred and fifty-one years 
before the birth of Christ. The different Greek versions of the 
Holy Scriptures, such as the Septuagint, the version of Aquila, and 
those of Theodotion and Symmachus, are introduced under those 
periods in which it is most probable they were made ; and of them 
the information is ample. The Masorites, and the authors of the 
Mishnah and Talmud are properly noticed, as bearing an unequi- 
vocal testimony to the existence and integrity of the Old Testament 
Scriptures, and serving as connecting links in this great and import- 
ant chain. Of all these works and authors. Dr. Clarke has dis- 
tinctly marked the Jirst edition — the best edition — and the most 
approved translation of such as have been either in whole or in part 
rendered into English. To collectors of books, curious persons, and 
scholars of limited means, this part of the work must prove very ac- 
ceptable, as tending greatly to facilitate an acquaintance with eccle- 
siastical antiquity. 

The subject of the authenticity of 1 John v. 7., forms a somewhat 
prominent article in the volume under consideration. Dr. Clarke has 
not only given a brief statement of the question relative to its authen- 
ticity, with an engraved fac simih of it and the connecting verses, 
from the Codex Montfortii, the only authentic MS. which contains 
the disputed passage ; and with this is connected a fac simile of the 
same paragraph as it stands in the Complutensian Polyglott, a 
work which contains the Jirst edition of the Greek Testament ever 
printed— but in this Review of the subject he controverts an opi- 
nion of Professor Michaelis relative to the destruction of the Alcala 
MSS. — and attributing the date of the Codex Montfortii, to the 
thirteenth century, and not the fifteenth or sixteenth as Michaelis 
would have it. I believe," says Dr. Clarke, " it may be in gene- 
ral said, that, those who have assigned to it the later dates, are such 
as never thoroughly examined it, and perhaps never saw it. I am 



OF THE REV* ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 47^ 

led to form this conclusion from the manner in which they have 
spoken of it, and from the false and inaccurate representations which 
have been given of the passage in question. I believe the only true 
representation of these verses is given for the first time in the an- 
nexed plate." Touching the authenticity of this disputed text. Dr. 
Clarke speaks with less dogmatism in the volume before us, viz. the 
" Succession of Sacred Literature," than on some other occasions.* 
In the Preface he thus writes : If I appear to hesitate on the 
question of the authority of this disputed passage, I hope none of 
my readers will suppose this proceeds from any doubt concerning 
the truth of the doctrine contained in it. In this I am bold to say^ 
that, I am as orthodox as either Hilary or Athanasius ; though in 
speaking on this subject, I should prefer the words of Scripture to 
most of the technical phrases used by these writers, especially the 
latter. Indeed to me, the true and proper Divinity of our blessed 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, appears to be essential to the divine 
authenticity of the New Testament ; each inspired writer asserting 
it in terms most unequivocal. At the same time, I would not have 
uiy readers to ima|?ine, that the proofs against the authenticity of 
this passage are demonstrative — to me they are not so ; yet they are 
strongly presumptive. Mr. Selden, Father Simon, Mr. Martyn of 
Utretch, Mr. Emlyn, Mr. Archdeacon Travis, Mr. Professor Por- 
son, Bishop Marsh, and Bishop Burgess, have nearly exhausted the 
subject on both sides ; yet it is but fair to examine what Mr. But- 
ler has said in his Horse Biblicae, vol. ii. p. 291, in favour of its 
Authenticity, from the Confession of Faith presented to King Hu- 
neric by the Orthodox Bishops, in A. D. 484. Every scholar and 
christian will feel that his suggestions and arguments are entitled to 
considerable respect : Mr. Butler, as well as several others [includ- 
ing Mr. Porson] is of opinion that the argument deduced from this 
Confession, has never yet been satisfactorily answered." And after 
discussing the point at considerable length in his Succession," the 
Doctor thus takes his leave of the matter : " See a Defence of the 
genuineness of this passage, by the present learned Bishop of Sali*. 



• See antey p. 336 , 



474} MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

bury. Dr. Burgess, entitled ' A Vindication of 1 John v. 7, from the 
objections of M. (xriesbach ; in which is given a new view of the ex- 
ternal evidence, with Greek authorities, for the authenticity of the 
verse, not hitherto adduced in its defence, octavo, London, 1821/ 
I think this the ablest defence yet published, of the authenticity of 
this much disputed text." p. 84. 

Referring to the sources of information, and the aids afforded him 
in the compilation of the volume, our author thus writes : " From 
Dr. Lardner's Credibility of the Gospel History, I have derived con- 
siderable assistance in the latter part of this volume, as also from 
the * Bibliotheque portative des Peres de I'Eglise,' of M. Tricalet. 
Had I known previously to composing my work, the * Bibliotheques 
des Auteurs Ecclesiastiques' of the laborious Du Pin, I might have 
shortened my labour : but this work never fell under my notice, till 
the whole of my volume (the Preface excepted) was long printed 
off. I judge it necessary to make this avowal, lest the similarity of 
our plans should lead any reader to suppose that the latter had bor- 
rowed from the former writer. " 

Apologizing for the circumscribed limits of his publication, the 
author assures his readers, that, to him, it was far more difficult to 
contract than it would have been to extend his work ; but that he 
intended it merely to be a manual, not to supersede but strongly to 
excite to the study of the Ancients, and that he should be sadly dis- 
appointed if it produced not that effect on all who are capable of 
the study. " To those who cannot go to the fountain head, because 
unacquainted with the original languages, even this concise produc- 
tion will be found sufficient, being at least commensurate to their 
confined education." 

Such is Dr. Clarke's own account of what he intended to achieve 
in this volume ; and no reader who examines it carefully throughout 
and makes a fair report, will charge him with having fallen short of 
the mark which he aimed at. The work is replete with interest- 
ing information brought down to the level of almost every capacity ; 
and one may justly apply to the learned author what Dr. Johnson 
said of himself in relation to the Lives of the Poets; " the honest 
desire of giving useful pleasure led him beyond his intention," so 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 471 



Bible ; and it must afford genuine pleasure to the intelligent reader, 
to find, that He who at sundry times and in divers manners, spoke 
in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets, and has in these last 
days spoken unto us by his Son, took care that in all collateral and 
succeeding times, these Revelations of Himself should be acknow- 
ledged and witnessed by a great variety of writers in different 
nations of the earth. 

"Secondly, 1 wished to make my readers, especially those designed 
for the sacred ministry, and those engaged in it, acquainted with 
Ecclesiastical antiquity, by not only giving them a view of the succes- 
sive writers in a chronological series, with an epitome of their lives, 
drawn from the most authentic sources, but also an account of their 
works, with a faithful and distinct Analysis of each ; so that in a 
few pages might be seen the substance of immense volumes. The 
labour that this has occasioned can only be appreciated by those who 
consider the ponderous volumes of writers in different languages, 
which in order to compose this work, it was necessary not merely 
to read in their titles or indexes, but in most cases to examine in 
every page, that a true synopsis of the author's opinions might be 
laid before the reader. As proofs of this, I may refer to the articles 
Justin Martyr — Irenaeus — Theophilus — Clemens Alexandrinus — 
Tertullian — Origen — Gregory Thaumaturgus — Cyprian — Arnobius 
— Lactantius; — Eusebius, and Athanasius." 

The work commences with six pages of Introductory Remarks 
on the Origin of Language^ which, with the learned Dr. Hugh Blair, 
and many others, he conceives to have been communicated to our 
first parents by divine inspiration, like the gift of tongues to the 
apostles on the day of Pentecost. What the language first spoken 
in Paradise was, the Doctor considers to be very uncertain, and that 
it is impossible to arrive at any satisfactory information on the 
point. " Some think it must have been the Chinese, because prin- 
cipally composed of monosyllables, forming very simple sounds, 
which they suppose must have been the grand characteristic of the 
original language. Some contend for the Hebrew, such as it is 
found in our Bible ; others for the Chaldee, such as that spoken by 
the father-in-law of Jacob; others give this honour to the Arabic; 
but Goropius Becanus, and Verstegan, seem fully persuaded, it waa 



MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



God, we labour under the greatest difficulty, because he is the first 
and principle of all things, and that in every thing the principle is 
difficult to be found. How then can He be described who is neither 
genus nor species, nor difference, nor individual, nor number, nor 
accident, nor subject, nor parts, nor limits. The character of the 
true Christian he describes at large by his knowledge of God and 
sacred things, and his redemption from every irregular passion 
and appetite, being fully united to God the sovereign good. He 
shews, however, that he does not live a merely contemplative life, 
but cultivates his mind in useful literature, and human sciences, 
which he uses to the honour of God. In their meals he says they 
sing while drinking to each other, and thus charm their passions 
while giving thanks to God who provides such abundance for the 
support of those who trust in him. In conclusion, Clement tells 
us his own books do not resemble a well planted and correctly ar- 
ranged garden, where every plant and shrub is placed in the most 
proper manner to please and delight the eye, but rather a thick and 
shady mountain, in which the cypress and plane tree, the laurel 
and ivy, the apple, the olive, and the fig, are indiscriminately min- 
gled together ; and from which, materials may be taken by the ex- 
perienced husbandman to make a beautiful grove, or a pleasant 
and delightful garden." 

In his Protrepticon, or Exhortation to the Gentiles, after a mas- 
terly, exposure of the absurd system of polytheism, he thus rallies 
them — " These are the symbols of your Voluptuousness ! These your 
insulting theologies ! These the instructions of your co-fomicating 
gods ! Your Satyrs and your naked Nymphs, and contests of Buffoons 
exposed naked in your scriptures ! Your ears are defiled — your eyes 
incontinent — your \oo\i adulterous y^e debasers of mankind! devoting 
to disgrace the first fruits of the divine particle of your fram !" 

Tertullian, who flourished about the year 200, Dr. Clarke 
thus characterizes : " Tertullian is a very difficult author, and this 
chiefly because of his studious brevity of expression, harsh con- 
structions, and use of words in uncommon meanings. Though he 
is frequently declamatory, yet the ruggedness of his temper and 
severity of his disposition, appear constantly in his writings. His 
impetuosity continually hurrying him from point to point, makes 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A, S, 477 

him very obscure, and prevents all possibility of ornament to his 
style ; he contains more miscellaneous information, and this ar- 
rayed in more energetic language, than most, or perhaps any, of the 
fathers. His words are diamonds, and diamonds too of the first 
water, which have no more polish than is sufficient to shew their 
excellent quality, and how capable they were of receiving additional 
splendour from the caustic intellect of their excellent author." He 
quotes the high encomium which was paid to this illustrious father 
by Vincentius Lirinensis, a writer of the fifth century, who says, 
that "Tertullian was among the Latin authors, the most considerable 
writer of the age in which he lived. For, what, says he, more 
learned than this man ? Who more skilled either in divine or human 
literature ? Truly every branch of philosophy, and every sect of 
philosophers — the/ounders and followers of those sects—all their 
several institutions, with all the variety of history and law — all this 
huge store of learning he comprised in the capacity of his mind. — 
So admirable was his satire, and at the same time such was the 
solidity of his judgment, that he rarely laid seige to any thing but 
he soon made it to yield, either by the penetration of his wit or the 
cogency of his reasoning. Nay, where is the man that is possessed 
of sufficient learning to do justice to his learning P His discourses 
are so thickly strewed with powerful reasons, that those whom he 
cannot persuade by his eloquence he compels to yield by argument. 
He has nearly as many sentences as words, and every sentence is 
sure of victory. The blasphemies of the heretics he overturns by 
the many and great strokes of his writings, as withso many thun- 
derbolts." 

Origen, the " everlasting allegorizer," as he has been called, 
comes in for a proportionable share of Dr. Clarke's notice. He does 
ample justice to Origen's learning, and compliments him as " a very 
excellent Christian and scholar, who, after having suflfered much 
for the testimony of Christ, died a natural death at Tyre, A. D. 255, 
in the 69th year of his age." After presenting us with a catalogue 
of his writings both in Greek and Latin, he adds, " Of Origen's 
allegorical method of interpreting the Scriptures, the whole Chris- 
tian world has heard. While many have extolled and copied this 
method, others have spoken with great and deserved severity 



478 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

against it. Every friend of rational piety and genuine Christianity 
must lament, that a man of so much learning and unaffected godli- 
ness, should have been led even to countenance, much less to re- 
commend, a plan of interpreting the divine oracles, in many re- 
spects the most futile, absurd, and dangerous that can possibly be 
conceived. Let it only once be admitted as the genuine way iu 
which the Old and New Testaments are to be understood, and then 
every thing certain and solid in religion instantly vanishes : for to 
allegorizing and spiritualizing neither rules nor limits can be pre- 
scribed. Fancy and imagination may sport endlessly in the wildest 
theories, one man having an equal right to interpret a text accord- 
ing to what he conceives to be its spiritual meanings as any other ; 
and though contradictory to their expositions, they both have equal 
pretensions to credibility, because there are no data by which their 
interpretations can be examined, as each is left to the boundless 
range of his own fancy. Besides, if it be once granted that the 
Scriptures are to be interpreted in this way, there can be no cer- 
tainty that we understand the meaning of a single text, unless God 
should give a special revelation to fix and determine the sense of 
that which he had already given. But we have no clue of this 
kind ; consequently on the allegorizing system, Valentinus, with 
his sublime nonsense about aeons and pleroma ; Origen with his 
ingenious allegories ; Ketch with his dull and stupid metaphors ; 
Behmen with his unintelligible theosophy ; and Baron Sweden- 
BORG with his internal and celestial senses, and dangerous and inde- 
cent reveries, may all put in their claims as infallible interpreters 
of the word of God; while the simple of heart, amid confusion, 
confounded by confusion, feels his faith a-float upon a mighty ocean, 
without a star to guide, a compass to direct, or a helm to regulate 
his course. God certainly never gave a revelation liable to be for 
ever misunderstood by such extravagant theories and fanciful 
modes of interpretation." 

The sterling good sense which characterizes the foregoing remarks 
added to their importance, makes it impossible they should be too 
generally known or too often quoted. Dr. Clarke gives a specimen 
of the learned father's singular method of allegorizing, as exhibited 
in his gloss on Exod. i. 16 — 22, and ii. 1 — 10, which verges contain 



OF THE REY. ADAM CLARKE, LL, D., F. A. S. 



479 



the narrative of the birth of Moses, his being hid three months of 
his parents through fear of the king's wrath, put in a basket of 
bulrushes, and set a-float on the River Nile, &c. &c. Now observe 
what Origen makes of this plain narrative of facts. According to 
him, Pharaoh king of Egypt is the devil — the male and female 
children are the animal and rational faculties of the soul. Pharoah, 
the devil, wishes to destroy all the males, that is, the seeds of ration- 
ality and spiritual science, by which the soul may tend to, and seek 
heavenly things ; but he wishes to preserve the females alive, that 
is, all those animal propensities of man by which he becomes sen- 
sual, carnal, and devilish. " Hence " says Origen, " when you see 
a man living in luxury, banqueting, pleasures, and sensual gratifica- 
tions, know that the king of Egypt has destroyed all the males, 
and preserved the females alive. The midwives are the Old and 
New Testaments; the one is called Sephora, which signifies a 
spouse and means that sort of instruction by which the soul is led 
to soar aloft, and investigate heavenly things. The other is called 
Phua, which signifies ruddy or bashful, and indicates the gospel, 
which is ruddy with the blood of Christ, spreading the doctrine of 
his passion over the world. By these two, as midwives, souls are 
born into the church, and educated in spiritual and evangelical 
truths. Pharaoh, the devil, wishes to corrupt these midwives, that 
all the males, the spiritual and heavenly propensities, may be de- 
stroyed ; and this he endeavours to do by bringing in heresies and 
corrupt opinions. But * the midwives feared God, therefore he 
built them houses,' i. e. the two Testaments teach and inculcate the 
fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom, and thus the houses 
of the church are built in diflferent parts of the world. — By Pharaoh's 
daughter, the church is to be understood, who leaves the house of 
her impious and iniquitous father, according to the word of the 
prophet: * Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine 
ear ; forget also thine own people and thy father's house ; so shall 
the king greatly desire thy beauty,' Ps. xlv. 10, 11. thus she obeys 
the word and comes to the waters to bathe ; that is, to the baptis- 
mal font, that she may be washed from the stains which she con- 
tracted in her father's house. Here she finds Moses in an ark of 
bulrushes, among the flags, daubed over with pitch j that is, being 



480 



MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



filled after baptism with bowels of compassion, Pharoah's daughter, 
the church, finds Moses, the law, in an ark made of reeds, daubed 
with pitch and bitumen, delbrmed and obscured by the absurd and 
carnal glosses of the Jews, by which all its beauty and elegance 
had been concealed ; and thus it necessarily continued till the 
church, formed out of, and coming from among the Gentiles, re- 
ceives Moses, the law, as her own child, which being given into the 
care of those that are spiritual, they strip it of its carnal glosses, and 
give it its proper spiritual interpretation ; then it acquires strength 
and excellence, and thus Moses grows up, and becomes, through 
the means of the Christian church, more respectable even in the 
sight of the Jews, according to the saying of Moses ; ' I will move 
them to jealousy with those which are not a people ; I will provoke 
them to anger with a foolish nation,' Deut. xxxii. 21. When Moses 
was grown up he was brought into the palace of Pharaoh's daugh- 
ter : so when we have cast aside our evil ways and have come to 
the baptismal waters, we receive Moses, the law, in its true and 
spiritual meaning, and see no more in it any thing base or vile, every 
thing being magnificent, elegant, and excellent, and we put it in 
the palace of our heart, and pray the Lord Jesus that He would 
reveal and shew unto us more and more how great and sublime 
Moses is. And this he does by his Holy Spirit, to whomsoever he 
will. To Him, therefore, be glory and dominion for ever and ever ! 

At* 
men. 

In all this, there may be both ingenuity and piety, but to say it 
is a piece of ingenious trifling, is to say little of it. Rather let us 
say that it is extremely reprehensible to treat the pure and holy 
word of God after this manner. " The prophet that hath a dream 
let him tell his dream ; but he that hath my word, let him speak 
my word faithfully ; for what is the chaff to the wheat, saith the 
Lord ? " Who does not see that upon Origen's method of explain- 
ing the scriptures, they may be made to say any things or every 
thing, or nothing, according to the fancy, peculiar creed, or caprice 
of the interpreter ? 

Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, a. d, 248, " a name dear to the 
Catholic church," as Mr. Gibbon expresses it — is another of the 
fathers, brought prominently forward by Dr. Clarke, in his Success- 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL.D., F.A.S. 



bn of sacred literature. He ' pronounces him one of the most 
valuable of the Latin fathers ; he was full of zeal, yet no enthusiast : 
his judgment was strong, and his eloquence answered to its strength ; 
he could please with profit, yet rebuke without otfence. In his 
strongest reprobation there is evident kindness, and in his denoun- 
cmg perdition to sinners, it is clear his only object is to lead them 
to heaven. His style is pleasing to the ear and persuasive to the 
mind ; it seldom sins against purity of diction, and is full, manly, 
and chastely ornamental." Cyprian's Works consist of Epistles 
and Tracts. The former were addressed to various persons and on 
various subjects; the Tracts too are very miscellaneous; but 
the whole were translated into English, iu one volume folio, by 
Nathaniel Marshall, LL. B. Lond. 1717. 

During the time that Cyprian may be said to have flourished, 
a terrible plague desolated the Roman Empire, and Africa in par- 
ticular. Of thi« tremendous scourge, Cyprian makes mention in 
one of his epistles, the title of which is " Concerning Mortality." 
It contains counsels to support the people under this dreadful visita- 
tion, shewing " that a Christian is not at all exempt from the common 
calamities of life any more than the heathen or Pagan ; the only 
difference bein^, that the Christian has inward help to support him, 
and hope in his end ; he should always be prepared, and thankful 
for any death, and his being carried off by pestilence in the course of 
God's Providence is not perhaps so glorious as the martyrdom 
many of them desired, but it is to be endured with equal constancy 
and joyfulness, as dismissing the righteous from the ruins and 
tempests and snares of the world and of life, into far more glorious 
scenes where we can call Paradise our country, and have Patriarchs 
for our parents : Why then should we not hasten and fly to see this 
our country, to salute these our parents ? There a mighty num- 
ber of friends await us ; a thronging and vast multitude of fathers, 
brothers, children, long for our arrival, now assured of their own 
immortality yet still solicitous for our safety." 

When the emperor Valerian, who had for some time been favour- 
able to the Christians, became their persecutor, Cyprian was 
brought before the proconsul Aspasius Paternus, and having con- 
fessed himself a Christian, he was banished to Curubis. At this 

3 Q 



482 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

time great numbers of Christians in the province of Numidia were 
apprehended, and, together with nine bishops, were sent to the mines. 
Galerius Maximus succeeding Paternus as proconsul of Africa, 
Cyprian was recalled, and the estate which he had sold for the 
benefit of the poor was restored to him, probably because the pur- 
chaser was dead and had left no heir. This tranquillity however, 
he did not long enjoy ; for he was soon summoned before the pro- 
consul, who informed him that the emperor commanded him to 
offer sacrifices to the gods. Cyprian promptly replied, I will not." 
The proconsul answered — deliberate." To which Cyprian re- 
joined, " In so just a cause there is no room for deliberation. Do 
whatsoever thou art commanded." The proconsul then read the 
sentence : Thrascium Cyprianum gladio animadverti placet 
— " It is decreed, that Thrascius Cyprian be beheaded." To which 
Cyprian made answer " God be praised ! " He was then led away 
to the field of Sexti, and, in presence of a multitude of people, be- 
headed according to the sentence, September 14th, a. d. 258. 
I must not omit among these worthies, the celebrated 

NovATiANUS, who flourished, a. d. 251. He first presents him- 
self to our view as an Elder, or Presbyter of the church of Rome, 
•which at this period had become deplorably corrupt in discipline and 
morals. The divine simplicity of the New Testament worship, as 
exemplified in all the churches planted by the apostles with Elders 
and Deacons, had given place to a species of hierarchy, in which the 
one bishop took precedency of several presbyters, in express viola- 
tion of the Christian law, Luke xxii. and Matt. xx. But independ- 
ent of this, the utter disregard of all discipline, was a still greater 
offence to Novatian and all the better part of the church, who pro- 
tested against this crying evil, but finding they could get no redress, 
a schism took place — Novatian and his friends withdrew, and 
formed themselves into a separate church, and thus became the Jirst 
dissenters of which we have any account in Church History. That 
the dominant party should abuse them for this, dub them schis- 
matics, and load them with the most opprobrious epithets need not 
surprise us. Dr. Clarke scruples not to honour the character 
of Novatian, and declares that the accusation of his enemies 
should be received with caution. ' The principal heresy laid 



OF THE REV ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



483 



to the charge of Novatian/' he says, was, that he refused to 
admit into the church any who had apostatized in the time of 
persecution, by offering sacrifice to the gods, &c. But as he and 
his followers had the name of Puritans, a name which does not ap- 
pear to have been chosen by themselves, but affixed to them by their 
adversaries, it is likely that their manners were in general simple 
and holy. Indeed their rigid discipline is no mean proof of this. 
We well know that those called Pietists in Germany, and Puritans 
in England, were, in general, in their respective times, among the 
most religious and holy people in both nations. The Novatians 
in after times condemned second marriages and held them unlaw- 
ful : but this was a sentiment of some of the most eminently pious 
men in the Christian church. As to another charge against them, 
that they did not pay due reverence to the martyrs, nor allow that 
there was any virtue in their relics ; it must be allowed that, griev- 
ous as it may appear in the sight of those who have infected and 
disgraced the Church of God with superstition and idolatry, it was 
a decisive mark of the good sense and genuine piety of this people, 
and must raise them in the esiimation of all sober intelligent 
Christians." 

Pamphilus, Presbyter of Csesarea, lived at the close of the third 
century, A. d. 294. He was one of the most learned and pious men 
of his time, and spent his life in acts of the most disinterested be- 
nevolence, and was an intimate friend of Eusebius, the ecclesiastical 
historian. He always kept several copies of the sacred writings by 
him, some of which were transcribed with the greatest accuracy by 
his own hand : and these he lent out to persons who had a desire to 
read them, whether men or women ; and many copies he also gave 
away. He erected a library at Caesarea, which is said to have con- 
tained thirty thousand volumes ! This collection seems to have been 
made merely for the good of the church, and to lend out to persons 
religiously disposed. This appears to have been the first Circula- 
ting Library of which we have any notice upon record. On such 
an eminently holy and useful man, the rage of persecution, when 
once excited, was sure to alight. He was apprehended and brought 
before the governor Urbanus, who, having tried his knowledge by 
different questions of rhetoric, philosophy, and polite literature, told 
him he must sacrifice to the gods. When Pamphilus refused to 



484 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

obey his orders, he commanded him to be cruelly tortured, after 
which he was cast into prison, where he lay for nearly two years, 
and was then put to death. He copied many of Origen's works with 
his own hand, and in conjunction with his friend Eusebius, wrote an 
Apology for this great man in six books. Dr. Lardner, on a review of 
the character of Pamphilus, thus triumphantly interrogates — Where 
can such a man as this be found in the heathen world ? How rare 
were such examples under the Mosaic institution, of men who em- 
ployed their whole time in improving their own minds and serving 
others without noise and ostentation, and without worldly views, 
and at last quietly resigned their lives, rather than disown the prin- 
ciples by which they had been hitherto conducted and supported !" 

Arnobius, another of the Fathers, who lived a. d. 306, was ori- 
ginally a heathen of Sicca, in Africa, where he taught rhetoric with 
great reputation ; and the celebrated Lactantius is said to have been 
one of his disciples. He was converted to the faith of Christ in the 
reign of Dioclesian, and soon afterwards wrote A Defence of the 
Christians and their religion, with a Refutation of the worship of 
idols." In handling this important subject he shews that Chris- 
tianity teaches men to worship the only living and true God, in 
such a way as is suitable to his character and perfections, — that our 
Lords life was a pattern of true holiness, and his conduct on all 
occasions, mild, forgiving, patient, amiable, and instructive : — that 
Christ wrought many miracles, without making use of any external 
means ; without show or ostentation, each of which had the most 
kind and beneficent tendency — that the Christian religion tends to 
soften the tempers, rectify the manners, and diffuse the principles 
of benevolence, peace, and friendship among men : all that cordially 
believe it are made holy, harmless, and useful ; and were it properly 
credited and embraced, wars and tumults would cease over the 
whole earth. He shews that the Christian doctrine had diffused 
itself in the most rapid manner oyer the whole empire and even be- 
yond it : so that even then, there were Christians in Syria, Persia, 
Scythia, Africa, Spain, Gaul and elsewhere ; hence he argues, that, 
if the system of its author had not been divine, Christianity could 
not thus have made its way over the whole world. Moreover, this 
religion was embraced under the greatest difficulties, discourage- 
ments, and persecutions, not only by the poor and illiterate, but by 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 485 



orators, grammarians, rhetoricians, lawyers, physicians, philoso- 
phers, and men of the greatest genius ; nor could crucifixions and 
tortures of various kinds induce even the meanest to forsake it. It 
would be absurd to suppose, that so many persons of all ranks, 
should, on a sudden, without the strongest conviction and influence, 
forsake the religion of their ancestors, and change their former opi- 
nions and customs ; and especially, when by acting in this way, they 
exposed themselves to the greatest suflferings, and even to death 
itself. Finally, he argues, that the testimony of the apostles and 
first followers of Christ, must be true, since they bore that testimony 
at the hazard of their lives, when they might, by suppressing it, 
have lived quietly and peaceably among their neighbours ; for it is 
absurd to suppose that a number of men would agree together to 
assert that they had seen things which they never saw, and facts 
which never existed, when by doing so they brought upon them- 
selves enmity and hatred, and became exposed to universal in- 
famy ! Had they not possessed the fullest conviction of the truth of 
the lacts testified in the Gospel they could not have been so foolish 
and brutish as thus to expose themselves to sufferings and death for 
attesting them. 

So far, as respects Arnobius' Apology for the Christians ; on 
which I take leave to remark that he assumes much the same 
ground and treads in nearly the same steps as Justin Martyr, Tatian, 
Athenagoras, Minutius Felix, Tertullian, and others had done 
before him ; and the reader who has perused the writings of those 
venerable fathers, must have perceived how little original matter 
the moderns have been able to bring forward on what may be 
termed the external evidences of Christianity. This species of proof 
arising from miracles, the fulfilment of prophecy, the credible tes- 
timony of the apostles &c. &c., doubtless has its use ; it may stop 
the mouths of gainsayers, make men attentive to the gospel, and 
render those who reject it altogether inexcusable. This may be, 
and no doubt is clearly perceived by men who are no ways in- 
fluenced by the gospel in their practice, having never discerned 
the glory, nor felt the power of divine truth ; for inany such persons 
have as keen a discernment, and as much thirst for scientific know- 
ledge as other men. But the faith of real Christians — the faith 



^56 MEMOIRS or THE LIFE, MIMSTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

which accompanies salvation, that works by love and gives the 
victory over the world, is not begotten by this extrinsic evidence, 
neither is it founded upon it, but on what is called its internal evi- 
dence, or the light and glory which shines in the Gospel, or divine 
testimony itself — the character of the blessed God therein made 
known as the just God and the Saviour; the suitableness of the 
salvation therein revealed to meet the wants of guilty, perishing 
sinners, and afford them instant relief on first hearing and knowing 
the report to be true — the harmony of the divine perfections mani- 
fested therein ; these thmgs when beheld, and in so far as they are 
so, effectually change men and conform them to it in heart and 
life. Surely no one will deny that it is possible for God to reveal 
his mind and will, and give abundant evidence that it is He that 
speaks in the revelation itself ; nor that it is possible for hiivi by 
means of this revelation, so to form the minds of those whom he 
would have to understand it, into a correspondence with this truth, 
causing them to discern this evidence, and so have a true under- 
standing of the truth as it is in Jesus — a doctrine which carries its 
own most blessed evidence in itself. Thus the apostle thanks God in 
the behalf of the disciples at Rome, that they who had formerly 
been the servants of sin, were now delivered into the mould of the 
gospel, so as to take its impress on their hearts and exhibit it 
in their lives, Rom. vi. 17, 18. and to the Corinthians he says, 
** But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a glass the glory 
of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, 
even as by the Lord, the Spirit," 2 Cor. iii. 18. When attempting 
to form a ^rop^r estimate of the value and importance of the gospel, 
we should be careful not to lose sight of it as furnishing guilty men 
with a reason of liope towards God, such as no other system of 
religion ever published in the world does — a hope founded on the 
resurrection of Christ from the dead ; and it is much to be regretted 
that this is so little touched upon in the writings of the fathers 

Lactantius has been already mentioned as the pupil of Amo- 
bius, consequently he may be considered as contemporary with him, 
A. D. 306. He was so eminent for his eloquence that the emperor 
'Dioclesian had him brought to Nicomedia to teach rhetoric ; but 
as the major part of the inhabitants of the country, Asia Minor, 



OF THE REY. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. 8. 487 



spoke only Greek, Lactantius had but few scholars, which induced 
him to give up teaching and betake himself to his pen. In his old 
age he became preceptor to Crispus, the son of Constantine the 
Great — the unhappy youth whom the emperor, his father, caused 
to be put to death. Amidst the splendours of a court, Lactantius 
was distinguished only by his talents and his poverty, and it is 
stated by Eusebius, in his Chronicle, that he was so poor in this 
^rorld that he often lacked the necessaries of life ! His writings 
are numerous, and Dr. Clarke has bestowed nearly twenty pages 
in describing and analyzing them : one of bis tracts is entitled, 
" De Ira Dei" ; or " Concerning the wrath of God." It is founded 
on the question — " Is there wrath in God ? or, can God he angry F " 
Some of the philosophers of his day maintained that God pays no 
regard to human actions ; others held the opinion that the divine 
nature was so beneficent that it could not be incensed at the evil 
actions of men. Lactantius asserts the contrary, which he en- 
deavours to establish by a chain of argumentation. The treatise 
abounds with just and striking seo^ments. but does not well admit 
of abridgment. His Institutions, however, constitute a far more 
elaborate work, and treat of God, and his Providence, with a 
Refutation of the Idolatrous worship of the Heathens. Dr. Clarke, 
after laying before his readers a syllabus of the treatise, adds, " In 
these institutions, among a great variety of fanciful interpretations 
of scripture, much credulity, and some wild theories, several weighty 
and important observations may be found, with much learning, and 
many curious particulars, no where else to be met with." 

We are now arrived at a memorable period in the annals of 
Ecclesiastical Historj^ namely, the time of the Arian controversy — 
a subject to which Dr. Clarke has paid no little attention in the 
volume before us — particularly in the notice of Alexander — Arius 
— and Atlianasius. The first of these renowned characters, viz. 

Alexander, was bishop of Alexandria, in Egypt, having suc- 
ceeded Achillas, in the year 312 or 313. He appears to have been 
a man of considerable learning and in high reputation among the 
orthodox divines of his day. He was present at the council of Nice 
in 325, and died at Alexandria about five months after its close, 
Arius one of his presbyters ; and history informs us that it wag 



488 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



a discourse which Alexander delivered on the subject of the Trinity, 
before Arius and some others, which gave birth to those objections 
Oil tiie part of Arius that became the foundation on which the Arian 
controversy was afterw^ards built — a controversy that has scarcely 
ever ceased to disturb the Christian church from that time to the 
present. As all this mighty flame arose, says Dr. Clarke, from 
comjDaratively a very small fire, I shall present the reader with the 
words of Socrates Scholasticus, who has particularly mentioned the 
cause and origin of this heresy. 

After Peter, bishop of Alexandria, who suifered martyrdom in 
the reign of Dioclesian, Achillas succeeded next in that see. After 
Achillas, came Alexander, w^ho, living in times that were more calm 
and secure, adorned and set his church in order. Discoursing once, 
in the presence of his presbyters and the rest of his clergy, too 
curiously concerning the Holy Trinity, he asserted this point of divi- 
aity — ' That there was a Unity in the Trinity.' But Arius, one of the 
presbyters under Alexander, a person of no mean skill in the faculty 
of reasoning, supposing that the bishop designed to introduce the 
opinion of Sabellius, the Lybian, (Arius) determining to be perverse 
and contentious, went over to an opinion diametrically opposite to 
that of Sabellius, and sharply and conclusively, as he thought, 
opposed the bishop's assertions, arguing thus : " If the Father 
BEGOT the Son, he that was begotten hath a beginning of his exis- 
tence ; and hence it is apparent, that there was a time when the 
Son was not. Hence, this is a necessary consequence, that he de- 
rives his existence from nothing." Socrat : Schol. Hist. Eccles. 1. i. 
cap. 5. On which Dr. Clarke remarks, 

" Socrates does not intimate that this was the opinion of Arius, 
but that Arius said this was a natural consequence of the opinions 
which Alexander was delivering concerning the Trinity and the 
Godhead of Christ. And indeed many who are thoroughly ortho- 
dox on this point, and sound in the faith in general, speak of this 
mystery in a most exceptionable manner ; from whose arguments 
in its favour either Arianism or Sabellianism may be fairly de- 
duced. How fe?7 are contented with the account which the Holy 
Spirit gives of this important doctrine : — ' In the beginning was 
the Word, and the Word was with God — and the Word was God — 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A S. 



489 



and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace 
and truth," J oh. i. 14. Alexander wrote, according to Epipha- 
nius, nearly seventy epistles, which are all lost, except two, and a 
very few fragments. One of these is preserved by Socrates, Hist. 
Eccles. lib. 1. cap. 6, and is a refutation of the doctrine said to have 
been maintained by Arius ; but whether he did maintain this doc- 
trine at ^rst is a question : that he afterwards espoused it, there 
is little room to doubt ; for opposition begets opposition ; and bad, 
dangerous, and anti-scriptural as the doctrine is, I am led rather to 
ascribe it to Alexander's exceptionable or " too curious" method 
of interpreting those Scriptures which speak concerning it, than to 
the heterodoxy of Arius. For my own part, I have no doubt that 
most of the heresies that have plagued and distracted the Christian 
world, have arisen from the absurd and exceptionable defences of 
the truth set up by its sincere, but often mistaken, advocates. 

Arius, a. d. 316, is described by Epiphanius, as tall in stature, 
grave and serious, yet affable and courteous. It is supposed he 
was born in Lybia, but of his parentage and the place of his nati- 
vity we have no account. He possessed considerable learning, and 
was distinguished by his skill in logic, or the art of disputing, and 
was not addicted to any outward acts of vice, though he was accused, 
and perhaps justly, of frequent prevarication ; and of swearing to 
confirm what he did not believe. He very early gained over to his 
party two or three bishops, seven presbyters, twelve deacons, and 
seven hundred virgins who had consecrated themselves to God. 
His heresy seems to consist in this, that he denied the proper divi- 
nity of Christ, but allowed him to be the first and highest of all 
created beings, and next to God ; though even in this he does not 
appear to have been consistent. It would be difficult to ascertain 
what the opinions of his followers were, as they do not seem to be 
agreed on the points now generally attributed to them. In almost 
every council they made an alteration in their creed, which proves 
they were far from having any settled confession of faith. The 
death of Arius, according to various ancient writers, was sudden 
and tragical. Socrates employed a whole chapter in relating the 
circumstances of his melancholy end. Constantine, the emperor, 
had sent for him to make a trial of his faith, and asked him whe- 

3 R 



490 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

ther he would subscribe the determinations of the Nicene Synod ? 
To this he immediately agreed, and confirmed it by an oath, on the 
requisition of the emperor. Constantine then sent an order to Alex- 
ander to receive Arius again into communion ; but no sooner had 
he taken his departure from the palace, than he was seized with a 
disorder in his bowels, which issued in a flux of blood, and his 
bowels gushed out! Of his writings little remains. The confession 
of faith which he and Euzoius presented to Constantine is pre- 
served by Socrates. Athanasius has preserved two epistles of his 
— one to Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia, and another to Alexander, 
bishop of Alexandria. 

Athanasius was born in Alexandria, about the year of our Lord 
296, and owed his education chiefly to Alexander, the bishop of 
that city, of whom mention has been already made, and whom he 
succeeded in the bishoprick, a. d. 326. He held the episcopate 
forty-six years, during the whole of which period, he was cruelly 
persecuted by the Arian party. Through their influence he was 
deposed in the year 335, and banished by the emperor Constantine 
to Treves. This emperor falling sick in the year 337, he caused 
Athanasius to be recalled ; but his enemies once more got him 
deposed, and put Gregory of Cappadocia in his place. He was 
declared blameless by the council of Rome, a. d. 342, and by that 
of Sardis in 347, and was restored to his see in 349. On the death 
of Constantine the Great, he was once more banished by that em- 
peror's son and successor, Constantius, whose creed took the Arian 
hue, and Athanasius Avas compelled to hide himself in the desert. 
About 360 he returned to Alexandria, but was shortly after ba- 
nished by the emperor Julian. He was recalled by his successor 
Jovian, and restored to his see ; but this sunshine was soon becloud- 
ed, for he was banished once more by the emperor Valens, in 367, 
by whom he was not long after recalled and established in his 
bishopric, where he died peaceably in the year 373. 

Athanasius is considered by many as the most eminent of all the 
Greek fathers of the primitive Church, and as a polemic he may 
deservedly rank as such. He was a firm and decided Trinitarian, 
and of course equally opposed to Arianism, which he sti ongly and 
successfully opposed, asserting that those who held it had no right 



\ 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 491 

to the name of Christians, and that the father of it was the devil ; 
What then would he have said to the Socinians of our day ? Many 
of his writings were directed to the purpose of counteracting the 
influence of that heresy. He takes notice of the continual changes 
made by the Arians in their religious creed. From the year 335 to 
361, they had formed not less than sixteen different creeds ! To go 
over his numerous treatises in this place, describing their contents, 
and estimating their importance, would be tedious and lead to great 
prolixity, especially as many of them are controversial. I shall 
therefore dismiss the subject with adducing a short quotation from 
his Epistle to MarcelUnus concerning the most profitable method of 
reading and interpreting the Book of Psalms. " Though every 
attentive reader," says Athanasius, " may easily discover the unity 
of the Spirit, in every part of the sacred Writings, yet the book of 
Psalms has an unction peculiar to itself, and which merits the most 
particular attention. No person can study this book without seeing 
the passions of his soul represented in their most natural and strik- 
ing colours, the changes which they produce in the mind, and the 
infallible rules by which he may regulate his heart and his conduct. 
Every man reads them as if they were his own words and made for 
himself; each sings them as if they regarded himself in particular, 
and none else ; in a word, they are received and read by every in- 
dividual, as if the things they contain were written for himself alone." 
We must all admit these observations to be strictly just and proper; 
and the experience of fourteen hundred years has only served to 
justify, and more fully to illustrate the pious sentiments of this 
judicious father concerning the value of the Book of Psalms. Dr. 
Clarke says " the creed commonly attributed to Athanasius is un- 
doubtedly spurious. Dr. Waterland supposes it, without much 
foundation, to have been made by Hilary, bishop of Aries. The 
most sincere and conscientious Trinitarians, have not only objected 
to the strong damnatory clauses contained in this creed, but also 
against its phraseology, and archbishop Tillotson piously wished 
that the church >jvere well rid of it !" 

But dismissing the Arian controversy, and the three renowned 
champions engaged in it, there are a few other great names which 
stand prominently forward on the pages of Ecclesiastical History, 



492 MEMOIRS OF THE LIiE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



•who deserve an incidental mention in this article. The first of 
these is 

EusEBius, Bishop of Caesarea, a. d. 320 ; with the exception of 
Origen, he was the most learned and laborious of all the writers of 
antiquity. But numerous and multifarious as his writings -were, 
the work by which he is best known, and deservedly esteemed in 
the present day, is his Ecclesiastical History, in ten books, be- 
ginning at the birth of Christ, and coming down to the year 324 — 
the most valuable monument of the primitive church extant. In this 
work the learned author marks the succession of bishops in the prin- 
cipal cities from the beginning to his own times — he speaks of all the 
ecclesiastical wTiters and their works — the different heresies which 
prevailed in the church — the controversies which arose on either 
doctrine or discipline — the persecutions which raged, and the 
martyrs who suffered in different places, with the triumphs of the 
gospel, &c. &c. This history is peculiarly valuable for the numer- 
ous large and interesting extracts made from different works, many 
of which no longer exist, as well as those made from w^orks which 
still remain. Of all Eusebius's Works," says Dr. Lardner, the 
Ecclesiastical History is the most valuable ; but it seems to me the 
least accurate of all his large works that are come down to us in 
any good measure entire. Some faults ^ay be owing to haste, 
others to defect of critical skill, others to the want of candour and 
impartiality ; for our great author, as well as most other men, had 
his affections. He was favourable to some things and persons, and 
prejudiced against others." 

Another of the works of Eusebius is entitled the " Evangelical 
Preparation," in fifteen books, a work of great excellence, and still 
extant. It is allowed on all hands to be a work of vast erudition. 
Like the Ecclesiastical History, it is eminently valuable on account 
of its containing large and important fragments of the works of 
ancient authors which have long since perished ; as also extracts 
from those which still remain, and which are lasting proofs of their 
being genuine. In perusing that work one is surprised to notice 
the prodigious number of heathen philosophers, historians, and 
theologians, whose opinions Eusebius has crowded together, and 
with what addi-ess he sets every man's sword against his fellow, till 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



493 



they mutually destroy each other. The grand object of the work 
is to prove that the Heathens had nothing excellent but what they 
borrowed from the Jewish writings ; and that the Christians had 
acted the most rational part in rejecting the absurd and contradic- 
tory opinions delivered by tlie Greeks, and receiving those sublime 
notions of God and his government exhibited in the Jewish Scrip- 
tures. He begins with defining the word 'EvayyeKiov, which signi- 
fies good news or glad tidings, and produces the principal proofs of 
the divinity of the Gospel system ; dwelling particularly on the 
accomplishment of the predictions of the ancient Jewish prophets, 
and of Christ himself, relative to the small beginning, and rapid 
and extensive progress of the Christian Church. But he does not 
restrict the proofs of the divine origin of Christianity simply to those. 
"It has from the beginning been opposed by the malice and influ- 
ence of men and devils ; the most powerful princes have done every 
thing they possibly could to destroy it from off the face of the 
earth; but notwithstanding all this, it has not only maintained its 
ground, but even in the midst of persecutions and indescribable 
cruelties, it has gained ground and spread itself over the face of the 
whole earth. But it was not a system of opinions merely that 
gained ground — it was a system of amelioration both of the minds 
and morals of the most enlightened, as well as the most barbarous 
nations. It has substituted the knowledge of the one only true 
God, in place of the irrational worship of idols, demons, stars, dead 
men, plants and animals ; and with this has introduced a universal 
reformation of manners ; so that all who receive it live pure, harm- 
less, and useful lives; and even simple girls and children have 
through its influence contemned torments and death, and by their 
example given more illustrious proofs of the immortality of the 
soul, than the wisest heathen philosophers have ever done by their 
best writings." 

Having established the truth of the Christian Revelation, he 
next proceeds to expose the folly and absurdity of the Pagan the- 
ology. In order to do this eflfectually, he cites the most celebrated 
writers among the Greeks, who have written on the mythology of their 
respective nations, and gives their own words, frequently at consi- 
derable length, and shews how contradictory they are to each other. 



494 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY,. AND WRITINGS, 

He refutes the allegorical theology of certain Pagan philosophera— 
exposes the oracles, which he shews to be given either by the 
knavery of men, or the influence of dsemons, who by these means 
got themselves adored as Gods — proves that Christ came into the 
world to deliver men from these daemons, and that their power had 
been destroyed wherever his worship had been introduced. On 
this subject he introduces a passage from Porphyry, a noted philoso- 
pher, to this effect : " need we be surprised that the city has been 
afflicted for many years with a variety of diseases, seeing Escula- 
pius and the other gods have abandoned the society of men ; for 
ever since Jesus has been adored, no person has been favoured with 
their protection." Alluding to the Septuagint version of the Old 
Testament he has the following remark : " that the providence of 
God had particularly manifested itself by disposing Ptolomy, king 
of Egypt, to get a Greek version made of the Jewish law ; for by 
this the minds of the nations were prepared to receive the Gospel 
of Christ" In the last book, Eusebius undertakes to prove, that 
the Greeks had all their knowledge of arts and sciences from those 
very people whom they affected to call " barbarians." His proofs 
are 1st. The acknowledgment of their own writers: and 2nd. The 
conformity of the writings of Plato with those of the Hebrew pro- 
phets ; persons who had lived long before his time, and to whom 
he was evidently indebted for his correct notions relative to the 
unity of God — good and €vil spirits — the immortality of the soul 
— the resurrection of the dead — the last judgment, &c. &c. 

Having prepared the way by the work now mentioned, Eusebius 
next published, what he called the " Evangelical Demonstration," 
in twenty l^ooks, the last ten of which are now lost. In this last 
work he proceeds to shew, why the Christians were not conformed 
to the ritual of the Mosaic institution, or that they neglected the 
Jewish ceremonies and mode of worship ? 

To this he answers, 1. Because that form of worship was never 
designed for any nation but that of the Jews ; and 2. That it would 
be impossible for any other nation or people to observe such rites 
and ceremonies as the Jewish law required. 3. That those who 
did not observe all the punctilios described by the Law, were laid 
under a curse ; for it is written, " Cursed is every one that con- 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL.D., E. A. S. 495 

tinueth not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to 
do them." Now as among these things, the going up thrice every 
year to Jerusalem, at the great feasts of passover, pentecost, and 
tabernacles was included together with the ordinaaces concerning 
purifications &c., bringing sacrifices to the temple for trarisgressions 
&c., it is evident that these laws could only be made for the Jewish 
people, and no other nation could be bound to observe their rites 
and ceremonies, since all the grand acts of their worship must be 
performed in Jerusalem, and not even an altar was allowed to be 
built to God out of the land of Israel. Moreover, it is obvious that 
salvation never could be designed exclusively for the J ews, since 
multitudes of promises and predictions shewed that God had intend- 
ed the blessings of the Gospel for all the nations of the earth. Christ, 
therefore, has abolished the law of ceremonies, and given a new 
law which he engraves on the hearts of his disciples. 

On the minor productions of Eusebius, all of which are enume- 
rated and specified by Dr. Clarke, I forbear to enlarge, and take 
leave of the article with the following short extract. " A new 
translation of the Ecclesiastical History with the notes of Valerius, 
Lardner, Jortin and others would be a valuable present both to the 
religious and literary world. The Evangelical Preparation and 
Demonstration also deserve well to be put into an English dress." 

Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, was bora in the year 315, ordained 
Presbyter in 344, and bishop in 350. He was accused by Acacius, 
bishop of Caesarea, of having disposed of the ornaments and sacred 
utensils of the church, in consequence of which he was deposed. 
That he did sell those sacred vessels was not denied ; but he did it 
to support the poor in a time of famine. In 359, he was re-estab- 
lished in his see by the council of Seleucia ; but in the following 
year he was again deposed by the intrigues of Acacius, in a council 
held at Constantinople. After the death of the emperor Constantius, 
Julian who succeeded him, having recalled the ex ed bishops, 
Cyril returned to Jerusalem, but was expelled a third time under 
the Emperior Valens, and was not permitted to return till after the 
death of that prince, which happened in 378. At length he was 
finally restored by the council held at Constantinople in 381 ; and 



496 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

* kept quiet possession of the Episcopal chair till 386, when he died 
in peace. 

In his day, corruption had spread its contaminating influence to 
a fearful extent, in the Catholic church, of which we need no greater 
proof than might be extracted froin the writings of this father. He 
wrote eighteen books of Catechetical Discourses, for the use of such 
as were candidates for baptism, and five others addressed to the 
illuminated, that is, those who had been recently baptized. He ex- 
horts the Catechumens to attend to the instructions about to be 
delivered — to abandon every sinful way — to receive the Exorcism, 
the words of which he tells them were drawn from the sacred 
writings, and the ceremony itself very profitable for the soul. He 
exhorts them to receive baptism in a becoming manner, of which 
he gives the following pompous eulogy, styling it, a deliverance 
from their captivity — the remission and death of sins — the regene- 
ration of the soul — and the ineffable seal of holiness! From all 
this it must be obvious to all who understand the subject, that at 
this time, the clergy of the church of Rome confounded the sign 
with the thing signified in baptism ; and so, in a discourse founded 
on Rom. vi. 3. " Know ye not that as many of us as have been 
baptized into Christ have put on Christ" — Cyril labours to shew 
that baptism is of the highest utility and excellence, 1. Because 
through it the soul becomes the spouse of God. — 2. Because through 
the medium of this water, we receive the grace of the Holy Spirit, 
by which the soul is washed from all defilement, &c. &c. with much 
more to the same purpose. " Thus understood," says he, " the 
effects of baptism are the remission of sins — the effusion of righteous- 
ness — final salvation and glory." This is genuine Popery, as will 
readily be admitted by all who understand the doctrine of Christ 
and his apostles respecting this gospel ordinance. 

As it may amuse the reader to have a further specimen of Cyril's 
popery, he may take, for that purpose the following extract from 
one of his Five Mystagogic Catechetical Discourses : he is treating 
of the holy chrism and confirmation. This rite was administered 
immediately after baptism, in the following manner : " The forehead 
^ was first anointed, to signify that the shame produced by the sin of 



OF THE REV, ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., I'. A.S. 



497 



the first man was taken away. Then all the face ; to shew that, 
all now with open face beheld as in a glass the glory of the Lord. 
Then the ears; to shew that they are now fit to hear the divine 
mysteries. Then the nose ; to shew that they should breathe nothing 
but the divine odour of Christ. And lastly the breast ; to intimate 
that they had now put on righteousness as a breast-plate, and were 
able to resist all the attacks of the devil. This anointing, says 
Cyril, renders us worthy to bear the Christian name, and is a pre- 
servative to our bodies, and a saving support to our souls. 

That the writings of Cyril have been interpolated, and that many 
things are to be found in them which were unknown to the age in 
which he lived, is generally admitted among the learned ; and 
Dr. Clarke takes notice of the fact. For, having quoted the fore- 
going remarks concerning the administration of baptism, and the 
mummery that followed, together with the ceremonies practised 
at the celebration of the Lord's Supper, in which the doctrine of 
transubstantiation is brought prominently forward, the Doctor 
remarks, " All who have the slightest acquaintance with Eccle- 
siastical History, will perceive at once that these doctrines and 
ceremonies are not those of the primitive Apostolic Church, and 
that these Mystagogic Catecheses can scarcely be supposed to be the 
work of Cyril, nor of any other writer of that time : for although 
a very general apostacy from simplicity and truth had already 
begun; yet, several of the doctrines and ceremonies mentioned 
here, were the productions of a grosser age, in which, show, 
parade, and a variety of religious mummeries, were substituted for 
the pure testimony of the blessed Jesus, and his apostles ; and for 
that simplicity, inward purity, and outward holiness, which charac- 
terize the spirit and genius of the Gospel of Christ, and his genuine 
disciples. Thanks be to God that, we still have our Bibles, 
which are with us, the only Standard of Truth ; and that we 
are not obliged to take our religious creed from the forged, or 
spurious writings of uncertain authors, or from the productions of 
apostate times 1" 

Who, now, after reading these very just and pertinent observa- 
tions from the pen of Dr. Clarke, would not expect to find in him 
4L strenuous stickler for the primitive church order, discipline, and 

:)8 



498 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

worship — regulating everything according to the pattern laid dowa 
in the Apostolic Churches. This, to be sure, is what consistency 
would require, and nothing short of it. But, well has the prophet 
said, " Cease ye from man — for wherein is he to be accounted of!" 
Had Dr. Clarke acted upon the principles above laid down, he 
would have opposed the whole system of Methodism, with all its 
classes and bands, and circuits, and district-meetings, and Annual 
Conference, as things totally unknown to the New Testament — 
the pure inventions of John Wesley, and in flat opposition to the 
appointments of Christ and his Apostles. But this en passant, 

Hilary, bishop of Poictiers, in Aquitain, a province of France, 
flourished a. d. 354. He was born in that city, but whether of 
Heathen or Christian parents, is uncertain. He applied himself 
from early life to reading and study, and it is said, read the Jewish 
and Christian Scriptures to much profit, as well as the writings of 
the heathen philosophers and poets ; by which means he acquired 
an immense stock of knowledge at a very early age. While reading 
the Old Testament, he was struck with the character of the true 
God, as therein described, and pursuing his inquiries and examin- 
ing the evangelists, he was astonished to find in their writings the 
doctrines of the incarnation and atonement there clearly unfolded. 
He immediately embraced the Christian faith, and became one of 
its most faithful, unblamable, and zealous advocates. The people 
of Poictiers, struck with his extensive knowledge, uncommon elo- 
quence, holy life, and fervent zeal, appointed him their bishop, 
tiiough as yet in no sacred office ; being a married man with a wife 
and one daughter. In 355, he was present at the council of Milan, 
and in 356, he opposed Saturninus, the Arian bishop of Aries, who 
got him banished to Phrygia, where he wrote his twelve books 
against the Arians. In the fourth year of his exile, he was called 
to the council of Seleucia, a. d. 359, where he delivered a powerful 
and eloquent defence of the orthodox doctrine, and detected the 
artifices of the heretics in so striking a manner, that, to get rid of 
him, they sent him into France, where he was received with the 
greatest demonstrations of joy and aflfection by his flock at Poictiers. 
He afterwards held several councils for the confirmation of the 
orthodox faith, and travelled through different parts of Italy, 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL.D., F. A. fiS. ^99 

Wrengthening the churches. Having gone through much suffer- 
ing and labour, he ended a holy and useful life at Poictiers, on the 
13th of January, 367. 

Most of the writings of this father, are pointed against the Arians^ 
and in confirmation of the doctrine of the Trinity. He asserts that 
the origin of all heresies may be traced to the pride of man, which 
refuses to submit to the authority of the Sacred Oracles, in which 
God has revealed the truth. Taking his stand upon Christ's com- 
mission to the Apostles, " Go, and teach all nations, baptizing 
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Spirit," he treats of the office and dignity of each person distinctly 
— speaks of the origin of heresies, and particularly of that which 
opposes the doctrine of the Trinity. He treats those persons with 
very little ceremony who refuse to receive this doctrine solely be- 
cause they could not fully comprehend it, though supported by 
Divine authority while they credited numberless matters relative 
to themselves, which in their very nature were equally incompre- 
hensible. Hilary produces numerous texts of Scripture, which 
clearly teach the Godhead of Jesus Christ, and these he explains, 
and reasons on them ; he dwells on the authority and excellence of 
the Holy Scriptures, compares them to a medicine capable of cur- 
ing all kinds of diseases — considers those texts on which Sabellius, 
Ebion, and the Arians found their respective heresies, strips them 
of their false glosses, and restores them to their proper signification 
— proves that the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son, 
and demonstrates his divine nature and office, with the necessity of 
his energy and influence as a gift from God lor the salvation of the 
soul. 

Dr. Clarke, who is evidently partial to the writings of this or- 
thodox father, has given a copious analysis of them, extending to 
fourteen pages, which he closes with the following short paragraph: 
" The works of St. Hilary have never been translated into English. 
A judicious abridgment of his ' Twelve Books on the Trinity,' 
might be very useful. It is strange that Dr. Lardner, who was a 
man of grieat candour and liberality, should have devoted only 
fourteen lines to this writer and his works!" Perhaps the wonder 
will cease when we recollect that Dr. Lardner was an Arian, and 



500 MEMOIRS or THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



that Arianism had rarely a more powerful opponent than Hi- 
lary ! 

On Eusebius, of Vercelli,A.D. 354 — Lucifer, of Cagliari, a.d. 354 
' — Eunomius, of Cyzicum, a. d. 360 — Damasus, bishop of Rome, 
A. D. 366 — with many others that flourished at this period, I must 
not enlarge ; and shall take leave of this very useful, interesting, 
and instructive volume, so creditable in all respects to the learning 
and talents of Dr. Clarke, with a short notice of what he says of 

Epiphanius, who flourished about the year 368. He was born 
in the territory of Eleutheropolis, in Palestine, probably about the 
year 310, and was devoted to literary and pious studies from his 
youth. He so well improved his time and talents, that he acquired 
an accurate knowledge of the Hebrew, Egyptian, Syriac, and Greek 
languages, and made considerable progress in Latin. When very 
young he embraced the monastic life, and passed several years in 
the desert in Egypt. In 367 or 368, he was chosen bishop of Con- 
stantia, or Salamis, the metropolis of the island of Cyprus, in which 
office he continued for thirty-six years. He lived to a very great 
age, and continued writing till near the time of his death, which 
happened, a.d. 403. He was in great repute among the most 
eminent men of his time, for his deep piety, unaffected simplicity 
of manners, and religious zeal ; but he was too credulous, and 
took a very culpable part in the persecution raised against Chry- 
Bostom, bishop of Jerusalem. 

Epiphanius was a voluminous writer, but his principal work is 
the Pannarium, or Treatise concerning Heresies, of which he enu- 
merates no less than eighty, and refutes the whole of them, seriatim. 
He defines heresy to be a Sect or Society who have particular 
religious sentiments which differ from those generally held by other 
religious people." These eighty heresies, Epiphanius compares to 
the fourscore concubines spoken of. Cant. vi. 8, whose children are 
not legitimate ; and who are widely dissimilar to the true spouse 
of Christ, the Church, who is styled, ver. 9, the undejiled dove, that 
is but one, and not like concubines, who are many, changing their 
creed, and separating into various divisions. He then concludes 
this large work with some account of the doctrine and practice of 
the true Church, 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 501 

The following reflections of Dr. Clarke, are so truly excellent, and 
BO perfectly in accordance with my own views of the subject, that 
I have great pleasure in laying them before the reader and pressing 
them on his attention : " I have no doubt," says the Doctor, " many 
of those termed Heretics, were genuine Orthodox Christians, whose 
reputation was blackened by those who were supreme in power, 
and thought themselves, in consequence, infallible in judgment. 
In every age, the enemy of God and man, endeavoured to sow tares 
among the wheat — and when he could not adulterate the truth, he 
corrupted the morals of those who professed it. Hence a laxity of 
discipline, induced or followed by earthly mindedness, and con- 
formity to the customs and manners of the world, deluged and 
disgraced the Church. But in all those times of error, seduction, 
and profligacy, there were not wanting men of clean hands and 
pure hearts, who rose up, and bore a faithful testimony against 
sucti as hold the truth in unrighteousness, boasting of an orthodox 
creed, while their practices were antichristian and impure. These 
faithful witnesses were often termed heretics by the reigning party; 
and by proscriptions or persecutions were either driven into exile, 
or obliged to separate from the Church. We know how easy it is 
to brand those with the name of heretics, who separate from a 
church too profligate in manners, and corrupt in doctrine even 
to deserve the name of Christian ; but because it has the secular 
power on its side, is authorized to do with the genuine followers of 
Christ whatever it pleases. Is not the whole system of Protes- 
tantism a heresy in the decrees of the Romish church: and as 
heretics have they not been proscribed, banished, and burnt alive ? 
Have they not had in the writings of their adversaries, the most 
absurd doctrines laid to their charge, which they never held and 
never believed ? Let the Protestant reader think of these things, 
and then enquire how much credit he should attach to the accounts 
he reads of ancient heresies, whether in Irenaeus, Tertullian, Epi- 
phanius, Phil aster, or others, where the writings of the accused do 
not remain to speak for themselves. Montanus, Tertullian, and 
Tatian, were called heretics ; — much of their writings remains ; but 
who can prove them to be heretics, from those writings ?'* 

I now take an adieu of this useful and instructive volume^ which. 



502 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINQS, 

however, I cannot do without expressing my unfeigned regret on 
account of an omission which is very observable throughout the 
whole, and which must greatly diminish its value to the student of 
Ecclesiastical History. 1 refer to the little notice which Dr. Clarke 
has taken in it of the writings of the dissenters from the Catholic 
church, of whom there were great numbers during the last hundred 
and fifty years of his narrative — namely, from the period when 
Novatianus withdrew from all communion with the church of 
Rome, to the end of the fourth century. He has indeed spoken 
of Novatian himself — and spoken favourably of him; but there he 
has stopped. In vain do we explore his pages for any account of 
the many excellent and learned men who were connected with the 
Novatianists — the Donatists — and the Brians, for the space of 
two hundred years or more. The names of Ascecius — Agelius — 
Marcian — Sisinnius — Chrysanthus, and many others, who were the 
lights of the world and the witnesses for God and his truth, are 
passed over sub silentio. That they were not a handful of insigni- 
ficant Sectarists, may be inferred from what Dr. Lardner says of 
them — who thus expresses himself: "The pieces written against 
them by St. Ambrose, Pacian, the anonymous author of the Ques- 
tions out of the Old and New Testament — the notice taken of them 
by Basil, and Gregory Nazianzen — the accounts given of them by 
Socrates and Sozomen in their Ecclesiastical Histories, are proofs 
of their being numerous, and in most parts of the world in the 
fourth and fifth centuries. Among the epistles of Isidore of Pelu- 
sium, who flourished about the year 412, there are two against the 
Novatianists. And that they subsisted towards the end of the 
sixth century, appears from the books of Eulogius, bishop of 
Alexandria, written about that time." Thus, continues Dr. Lardner, 
" the vast extent of this sect, is manifest from the names of the 
authors who have mentioned, or written against them, and from 
several parts of the Roman empire in which they were found. It 
is evident, too, that these churches had among them some indivi- 
duals of note and eminence." The same may also be said con- 
cerning the Donatists in Africa, and the iErians in Armenia, 
Pontus, Cappadocia, and elsewhere — who, as Mosheim informs 
. JUS, were all strenuous advocates for primitive Christianity, and 



or THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 503 

raised their voice like a trumpet against the growing corruption of 
the Catholic church. It is from regarding them in this estimable 
point of view that I could have wished Dr. Clarke had paid more 
attention to them and their writings than he has done, in his suc- 
cession of Sacred Literature. 

A short Account of the Introduction of the Gospel into the British 
Isles, and the Obligation of Britons to make known its Salvation 
to every region of the earth; in an Address, delivered in the 
Chapel, City Road, London, on Thursday evening, December 1, 
1814, the formation of a Missionary Society, among the people 
called Methodists, in that city. London, 1815; pp. 36. 8vo. 

The Wesleyan Methodists appear to have been twenty years 
behind some of the other denominations, in the formation of a Mis- 
sionary Society ; but that circumstance is accounted for by Dr- 
Clarke, in the pamphlet before us. They had their missions in 
North America, the West Indies, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, 
for thirty years ; but they were under the superintendance of the 
late Dr. Thomas Coke, and the direction of Conference. While 
the Docter was living, he took upon himself the work of raising 
funds to defray the expense attending them ; and for that purpose 
he made collections from house to house ; and when the supplies 
thus raised were found inadequate, the deficiency was made up by 
an annual collection at their various chapels and congregations. 

When Dr. Coke was removed from this sphere of his usefulness, 
it was found necessary to organize a society to supply his lack of 
service, the preachers not being able to spare time from their 
ministerial duties, to go about and solicit subscriptions, in support 
of the mission. To carry this into effect, a general meeting was 
held in the metropolis, on the 1st Dec. 1814; on which occasion 
Dr. Clarke delivered the address which forms the substance of 
this pamphlet. It contains much interesting information on the 
subject of the first introduction of the Gospel into the British Isles; 
and if the narrative be attended with less of certainty and the 
evidence of facts, than could be wished, we must attribute it to the 
impossibility of procuring authentic materials of history, and not 



504 MKMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



to any want of industry or skill on the part of the author. The 
information supplied by tradition is scarcely worth the pains of 
detailing. The Popish legend concerning Joseph of Arimathea — 
his miraculous voyage across the English channel, with Philip the 
Evangelist and eleven disciples, all upon Joseph's shirt — their 
settlement at Glastonbury, where twelve hides of land were 2issigned 
them for support, together with the erection of a chapel of wicker- 
work, constituting the first church or oratory in Great Britain, are 
scouted by Dr. Clarke as things " almost incredible." 

That the conquests of the Romans were extended in this island, 
in the apostolic age, we know to be a fact sufficiently ascertained 
by history ; and particularly under the emperor Claudius, who 
came here in person about a. d. 43, and an ancient inscription 
has given some learned men cause to believe that the Gospel was 
first introduced by Pomponia Grecina, wife to Plautius, one of the 
generals of the Roman emperor. She was a Christian lady, and 
is supposed to have made the Christian doctrine known to her 
domestics, and the whole circle of her acquaintance, whilst resident 
in Britain. Dr. Clarke briefly adverts to the tradition which attri- 
butes the evanj^elizing of the British isles to the apostle Paul — as 
also to Peter — and to Aristobulus ; but lays no stress upon any of 
them ; nor does he treat the romance concerning a British king, 
Lucius, who, according to Bede, embraced the Christian faith, a. d. 
156, with any respect. This he thinks the most uncertain of all 
the traditions which we have relative to this important event. 
Dismissing, therefore, all these traditionary tales, he comes to 
positive testimony, which is incapable of being suspected, and 
which proves that Christianity had an establishment here, long be- 
fore the Romish church pretends to have given our countrymen 
the blessings of the Gospel. He then adduces the testimony of 
TertuUian, a. d. 160 — of Origen, a. d. 220 — of Athanasius, a. d. 
350 — and of Chrysostom, a. d. 400, all of whom speak of the 
Gospel having found its way into the islands of Britain, prior to 
their time ; and also that there were churches planted and bishops 
ordained over them. He specifics no less than six councils that 
were held, from the year 446 to 519, and of English bishops at- 
tending the councils of Aries, a. d. 314 — Nice, 325 — and Rimini, 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F, A. S. 505 



359, all which go to prove that there was not only Christianity in 
Britain, at all these early periods, but also that there was a regu- 
lated church with its bishops, who were thouj^ht of sufficient con- 
sequence to be summoned to foreign councils, where matters of 
vital importance to Christianity were discussed and determined ; 
and all this prior to the arrival of Augustin and his forty monks, 
who came to convert the Saxons in 597. 

The account of Augustin's mission to Britain, at the instance of 
Pope Gregoiy the Great, Dr. Clarke extracts from the Saxon 
homily of ^Ifric, which he translates literally ; and then adds, that, 
" allowing this story without abatement, and that the Heathen 
Saxons had nearly expelled the British Christians, both from the 
eastern and northern parts of this kingdom ; yet, that Christianity 
had never been extinct in this land, from its earliest introduction, 
a great number of historical monuments amply prove." The 
Doctor adds — 

From all that I have said, it will, I hope, fully appear, that 
we have received our religion from the apostolic times ; and most 
likely by means of apostolic missionaries; for the primitive disci- 
ples of our Lord received his command in the most literal sense, 
* Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature 
and my brethren in the ministry will pardon me if they think I 
carry things too far, when I say, that it is my conscientious belief, 
that the same command is still binding on every minister of Christ j 
and will continue to be so, while there is one district of the globe, 
however small, unconverted to the Christian faith. And if these 
things are so, should not every minister of Christ lay this especially 
to heart, when there is more than half a world, after all that has 
been done, on which the light of the Gospel of Jesus has not yet 
shined ! And if it be the duty of a preacher to carry the glad 
tidings of salvation to every part of the habitable globe, it is the 
duty of the people who know the joyful sound, and walk in the 
light of God's countenance, to furnish the means whereby the mes- 
sengers of peace may be supported in their arduous undertaking. 
It is true that God must open the door of faith to the Heathen ; 
and we should wait till we hear a voice, as in a certain case, say- 
ing, ' Come over to Macedonia and help us !' But is not this door 

3t 



506 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

Opened in different dark parts of Europe — in Africa — in America, 
and the almost innumerable islands in that part of the globe ? and 
also in Asia, where either Paganism of the worst species, or op- 
pressive and degrading Mahomedanism, governs more than one 
fourth of the globe with an absolute and destructive sway. The 
call from these different regions is not equivocal ; it is clear, distinct, 
and strong. The harvest is plenteous — the labourers have hitherto 
been but few — too few in so vast a field. However, there have 
been, and there are now labourers. Neither prejudice nor bigotry 
can shut our eyes against the labours and success of others." 

This leads Dr. Clarke to take a rapid glance at the various Mis- 
sionary Societies that were then in existence and operation, begin- 
ning with the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, of the Romish 
church, founded by Pope Gregory XV. a. d. 1622 — then the 
Danish Society, founded by Frederic IV. a. d. 1705, which he tells 
us has done wonders in India, by the ministry of several most 
eminent and truly apostolic men. Next follows the Unitas Fratrum, 
or Moravians, who, considering the smallness of their number, 
liave been unexampled in their missionary exertions, and carried 
the blessed Gospel of Jesus Christ to some of the most remote and 
most inhospitable parts of the globe. Of them it has been tnJy 
said, they have sent their ministers — 

*' To plant the Tree of Life in fields of ice, 
And make it flourish in eternal snow." 

And they have succeeded. Greenland, Labrador, and other in- 
hospitable climes, have witnessed their extraordinary labours, trials, 
and success. These people were at first a handful of persecuted 
exiles. The Bohemians, who refused to receive the dogmas of the 
Romish church, were, by continual oppression, and at last, by the 
unfortunate battle of Prague, nearly reduced to ruin. A little after 
the beginning of the 18th century, God raised up a man of the 
name of Christian David, of Marquesate, in Moravia, who became 
the instrument of reviving pure religion among them. This man 
applied to Count Zinzendorf for an asylum on his estates in' Upper 
Lusatia. This being granted, he and two families, in all eleven 
persons, went tliither in 1722, and settled in that place which is 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F A. S. 507 

now called Hernhuth. David, returning to Moravia, persuaded 
some hundreds more of his persecuted brethren to follow his ex- 
ample. They did so. The pleasure of the Lord prospered in their 
hands, and the man who had granted them an asylum, became in 
the order of God their bishop. 

" It is worthy of remark, that such was the zeal of this people 
for the conversion of the Heathen, that when they were only about 
600 in number, they sent missionaries to the island of St. Thomas 
— to Santa Cruz — Surinam — Berbice — the Indians in North Ame- 
rica — the Negroes in South Carolina — to Lapland — Tartary — 
Algiers— Guinea — the Cap^ of Gfood Hope — and the island of 
Ceylon !" 

After some further interesting particulars respecting the Mora- 
vian mission. Dr. Clarke mentions the Dutch Missionary Society ; 
and also a Swedish Society, who have sent missionaries to Lapland. 
He then comes nearer home, and specifies the Edinburgh Mis- 
sionary Society, which has established missions among the Susoos 
in Africa, and through the labours of the late learned and pious 
Mr. Brunton and others, translated and issued the New Testament 
in the Tartaric language from Karass, at the foot of Mount Cau- 
casus, which has been read by many demi-Heathens and Maho- 
medans; and we may confidently believe, that Gods word cannot 
be read without profit. 

He mentions the London Missionary Society, which had sent 
out Dr. Vanderkemp to carry the glad tidings of Salvation among 
the Hottentots in Caffraria, and passes a handsome eulogium on 
his memory. Also Dr. Morrison's mission to China, and his 
labours in printing the New Testament in the Chinese language ; 
but, what is remarkable. Dr. Clarke never once alludes to their 
missions to the Sandwich Islands, which had then been at least 
fifteen years in existence, and had made noise enough to be heard 
" from Britain to Japan I" Are we to understand by this silence 
that the Doctor did not think so highly of this splendid mission as 
some others did ? 

Of the Baptist mission to India, Dr. Clarke thus records his 
opinion. " The translating of tjie Scriptures into the different 
languages of Asia, has been carried to an unprecedented extent by 



508 MEMOIRS OF THE IIFE^ MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

Messrs. Carey, Marshman, and Ward, Baptist Missionaries at 
Serampore ; men whose names should not be mentioned without 
honour — who have done, and are doing, more for the propagation 
of the Gospel of Christ, by their various translations, than has been 
done, by any class of men, or in any country, since the foundation 
of Christianity, They are not only missionaries, and successful 
missionaries themselves; but by their translations into different 
languages, of which they have now twenty one either in hand, in the 
press, or in circulation ; they are successful pioneers, to open the 
way of missionaries in general, to all the nations of India and 
China. Not only Dr. Marshman's translation of the whole bible 
into Chinese, which I understand is nearly completed; but his 
extraordinary invention of moveable metal types for that language, 
will, with comparatively little cost and trouble, multiply copies of 
the sacred writings in tens of thousands, to be dispersed in that 
vast empire." 

After a brief notice of the Church Missionary Society — then in 
its infancy — Dr. Clarke winds up his address with a pungent ap- 
peal to his brethren of the Methodist persuasion, inviting them to 
come forwards, and assist the righteous and holy cause by liberal 
contributions; and nobly indeed have they responded to his call. 
In the comparatively short period of about eighteen years, their 
missionary fund has gone on rapidly and annually increasing, till it 
now exceeds Forty thousand pounds a year — -surpassing in amount 
every other Missionary Society, that of the Church of England 
alone excepted ! 

" Let the rich and the poor come forward," says the Doctor, " in 
this great and important work : the pence of the multitude of the 
pious poor will produce funds to carry on the greatest designs. 
God will sanctify what you give, and put his blessing on what re- 
mains ; and you will have the consolation to reflect that you have 
contributed your part, through these your proxies, to publish the 
Gospel of Christ to nations whom you can never see, and to tribes, 
of whose names you have never heard. Your support of the Gospel 
has been hitherto, in a great measure, confined to yourselves ; by 
coming heartily forward in support of this glorious missionary 
work, you will now especially benefit others ; and thus give proof 



OF THE REY. ADAM CLARKE, LL.D., F.A.S. 509 

of your obedience to the command of Christ — ye shall love your 
neighbour as yourselves." 

Referring, probably, to his being appointed to the Norman isles, 
at an early period of his ministry, and to the shameful manner in 
which he was treated in Jersey, as formerly mentioned,* Dr. 
Clarke says — " Those sent to America excepted, I myself was ome 
of the first Methodist missionaries. I have also laboured and 
suffered — with what weakness and success are known to Him who 
is peculiarly the God of missionaries. I know the heart of a mis- 
sionary, and his labours ; and I know what it is to be from under 
the immediate protection of British Laws." 

The Address thus closes: " Time is flying — God is working — 
the shaken and sifted nations are settling into peace — the word of 
the Lord is going forward to prepare the way of the messengers, 
for its application to the hearts of them wiio are receiving it. The 
British and Foreign Bible Society, an institution the most wonder- 
ful and most beneficial the Christian world ever saw, is multiply- 
ing bibles by millions ; partly by printing them in this country, 
and partly by large pecuniary grants for the establishment of 
Bible Societies, for translating, printing, and circulating the 
Scriptures, through Europe, Asia, and America. Never did such 
a multitude of energies and facilities combine for the universal 
diffusion of the Gospel ! We have long prayed, * Thy kingdom 
come* and God is, in the most remarkable manner, answering this 
prayer. Those who do not now come forward to the help of the 
Lord against the mighty, must expect a worse than the curse of 
Meroz ; and those who come forward may scripturally expect that 
the blessing of those who were ready to perish shall come on them. 
Your work and your duty are before you : may God dispose your 
hearts to act according to his will. Amen." 

The Christian Prophet and his Work : a Discourse on 1 Cor. XIV. 3. 
Second Edition. London, 1800 : 8vo. pp. 30. 

The text on which this Discourse is founded reads thus : " He 
who prophesieth, speaketh unto men to edification, and to exhorta- 



* See Section VIII. p. X48, et seq. 



510 MEMOIRS OF THE LITE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



tion, and to comfort and the Doctor dedicates it *' To all the 

Ministers of the everlasting Gospel, who conscientiously endeavour 
to speak to men, to edification and exhortation, and comfort ; 
especially to those among the people called Methodists." 

The pamphlet derives its principal claim to notice, on account 
of the striking proof it exhibits of the author's total unacquainted- 
ness with the constitution and order of the apostolic churches ; and, 
in a word, how little he knew, with all his learning, about the na- 
ture of Christ's kingdom in the world. Several pages are devoted 
in the outset to the purpose of defining the import of the word 
" Prophet," or he v.ho prophesieth, as it occurs throughout the 
chapter. The Doctor convincingly shows that it does not mean 
one who foretells future events. He goes to the Pentateuch and 
finds the term first applied to the patriarch Abraham, Gen. xx. 7, 
** He is a prophet and will pray for thee." Now in the common 
acceptation of the term, says Dr. Clarke, it is certain that Abraham 
was no prophet. The word is here used evidently to denote a man 
of prayer — one who had great influence with the God he wor- 
shipped, and whose intercessions were available in behalf of others, 
—and in this sense the Hebrew term Rahi, is used in several placet 
in the Old Testament. 

He then proceeds to examine the application of the term to 
Saul, I Sam. x. 9—13; and chap. xix. 20 — 24. Here, he says, 
**it can mean no more than prayer and supplication to God, ac- 
companied probably with edifying hymns of praise and thanks- 
giving." And so when the question was put, " Is Saul also among 
the prophets it is the same as saying in modern language, " Can 
this man pray or preach ?" And here the learned Doctor imagines 
he has found the true import of the word " prophet," as used by 
the apostle in the chapter from which his text is taken, viz. 1 Cor. 
xiv. " The word prophet in the text," says he, means not only 
one, who, according to the original import of the term is an inter- 
cessor, or a man of prayer, which is an essential characteristic of 
every minister of the Gospel, but it means also, one who teaches 
others the great and glorious science of salvation, and instructs men 
in their religious obligations to God, and in their duty to their 
neighbour and to themselves. And this is, undoubtedly, the sense 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S 511 

in which St. Paul uses it here."* In perfect consistency with this 
view of the matter, the whole of the Doctor's Discourse is addressed 
to persons who are preachers by office, and to them it is dedicated. 
But that he has taken up an entirely wrong view of the matter and 
is perverting the apostle's meaning may be easily shown by apply- 
ing his notion of the word prophet to the 31st verse of the chapter, 
which runs thus : " Ye may all prophesy, one by one, that all may 
learn and all may be comforted." Are we then to understand the 
inspired apostle as teaching the whole church of the Corinthians, 
that they may all be preachers and teachers ? So, indeed, it must 
be, according to Dr. Clarke, but that man must be very ignorant 
of the apostolic writings, who can suppose he intended to inculcate 
any such doctrine. In all his writings we find him insisting on 
the distinction between Teachers and taught, Gal. vi. 6. — Rulers 
and ruled, Heb. xiii. 1 1. —Shepherds and the fiock. Acts xx. 28. 
Elders, presbyters, bishops, or overseers, and the brethren among 
whom they laboured in the word and doctrine, exercising the office 
of under-shepherds, and serving them in the Gospel of Jesus Christ 
— watching for their souls as those that must give account to the 
chief shepherd at his appearing and kingdom. Into this important 
subject, so essential to every scribe that is well instructed into the 
mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven, Dr. Clarke never seems to 
have entered — for what indeed has Methodism to do with it .»* The 
things areas opposite as the two poles; and in proportion as the 
mind is enlightened into the nature of Christ's kingdom, must the 
economy of Methodism sink in its estimation. 

As this is a subject of great importance in the religion of Christ, 
but one that is in a great measure lost sight of by the Methodists, 
both preachers and people, I shall take leave to introduce an 
extract from a late author, who has handled the subject with a 
becoming deference to the word of God, hoping that it may be 
useful to some readers in drawing their attention to what the 
Spirit saith unto the churches. 

Christ hath bestowed a variety of gifts upon his Church, and 
from hence arise a number of corresponding duties. The apostle 
observes that " the body is not one member, but many. If the 



• Discourse, p. 11, 12. 



MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

whole body were an eye, where were the hearing ? — if the whole 
were hearing, where were the smelling ? — and if they were all one 
member, where were the body ?" It is not the number, but diversity 
of members with their different offices, that is here intended, with- 
out which the natural body would be imperfect. In like manner 
the Church of Christ would not be a complete organized body 
without a diversity of gifts and offices. If the whole had but one 
kind of gift, however excellent, it could no more answer all the 
needful purposes of a church, than an eye or an ear those of the 
natural body. But Christ, by his Spirit, hath conferred a variety 
of gifts upon his Church (1 Cor. xii, 14, 17, 19), dividing to every 
man severally as he will ; and as the manifestation of the Spirit is 
given to every man, not for his own private advantage, or to gratify 
his pride, but to profit the body withal ; so every one, according to 
the nature and measure of his gift, should act his part in the body 
for the good of the whole. " Having, therefore, gifts differing," says 
the apostle, " according to the grace that is given to us, whether 
prophesy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith ; or 
ministry, let us wait on our ministring ; or he that teacheth on 
teaching; or he that exhorteth on exhortation ; he that giveth, let 
him do it with simplicity (or liberality); he that ruleth with dili- 
gence ; he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness," Rom. xii. 6 — 9 
*' As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same 
one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God, 
If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God ; if any man 
minister (deaconize), let him do it as of the ability which God 
giveth, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus 
Christ." 1 Pet. iv. 10, II. 

These exhortations are no doubt addressed in the first place ta 
office-bearers, who are enjoined to take heed unto themselves and 
to all the flock over which they are made overseei"s ; to feed the 
Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood ; to 
preach the word ; to be instant in season, out of season ; to " re- 
prove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and doctrine," 2 Tim. 
iv. 2. These are pastoral duties which they owe the flock committed 
to their charge. On the other hand, the flock in relation to them 
are exhorted, " Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit 
yourselves; for they watch for your souls, as they that must giye 



OF THE REV ADIM CLARKE, LL. D., f. A. S. 51^ 

account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief; for that 
is unprofitable for you," Heb. xiii. 17. And we beseech you, 
brethren, to know them who labour among you, and are over you 
in the Lord, and admonish you ; and to esteem them very highly 
in love for their work's sake." 1 Thess. v. 12, 13. 

" But whilst we give all that place which the word of God re- 
quires to the gifts and office of pastors, we must not imagine that 
all the gifts needful for edifying the body are confined to them. 
Christ hath distributed a variety of gifts in different measures 
among all the members, and all of them are useful in their place ; 
so that ' the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee ; 
nor, again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you,' 1 Cor. 
xii^ 21. All, indeed, are not rulers, yet all have their part in the 
discipline of the Church, and nothing can be concluded without 
their unanimous concurrence. All are not teachers by office, yet 
all are enjoined to teach, exhort, warn, and admonish one another, 
that speaking the truth in love, they may grow up into him in all 
things who is the head, even Christ. — All are not overseers by office, 
yet all are commanded to * look diligently, lest any man fail of the 
grace of God.' It is evident, therefore, that all the members have 
a mutual charge one of another, and that the body edifies itself in 
love, when every one in his proper place acts his part according to 
the measure of the gift bestowed. In order to this, they have much 
need to attend to the exhortation, * Let all things be done to edi- 
fying,' — * Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory.' * I 
say to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more 
highly than he ought to think ; but to think soberly, according as 
God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith,' Rom. xii. 3. 
Such as are possessed of superior gifts must not value themselves 
on that account, nor despise their brethren whose talents are in- 
ferior; nor must the latter envy the former, or aspire after places 
or functions in the body, for which they are no way fitted : but 
every one ought to keep his place, and exercise his particular gift, 
with humility and love, for the good of the whole."* 

* See Christ's Commission to his. Apostles illustrated, by Archd. M'Lcan, 
pp. 250—254. 

3 V 



514 MEM0IR3 OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

Now this is the system of things, to which the chapter, I Cor, 
xiy. appertains, and aside from which it is utterly impossible for 
the wit of man to give any clear and consistent interpretation of 
its scope, design, and meaning. Upon the principles of the Metho- 
dist economy, the whole is an enigma, a riddle, a piece of confusion. 
Accordingly, we find Dr. Clarke, in his commentary on the chapter, 
candidly acknowledging " this chapter is crowded with difficulties !" 
and no doubt it is upon his scheme of things. To help him in sur- 
mounting these difficulties, he has c lied in the aid of Dr* Lightfoot, 
who " supposes that by the unknown tongue the Hebrew is meant, 
and that God restored the true knowledge of this language when he 
gave the Apostles the gift of tongues ! As the Scriptures of the 
Old Testament were contained in this language, and it has beauties, 
energies, and depths in it which no verbal translation can reach, 
it was necessary, for the proper elucidation of the prophecies con- 
cerning the Messiah, and the establishment of the Christian religion, 
that the full meaning of the words of this sacred language should 
be properly understood. And it is possible [no doubt many things 
are possible!] that the Hebrew Scriptures were sometimes read in 
the Christian congregations as they were in the Jewish synagogues; 
and if the person who read and understood them had not the power 
and faculty of explaining them to others, in vain did he read and 
understand them himself." This is the key furnished by the very 
learned Dr. Lightfoot, " whose mode of reconciling these difficul- 
ties," says Dr. Clarke, " is the most likely I have met with ! !" 
"Who that calmly surveys this can forbear exclaiming with the 
Apostle on another occasion, " Where is the wise ? where is the 
scribe ? where is the disputer of this world ?" It is written, " I will 
destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the un- 
derstanding of the prudent." I shall take leave of the subject of 
New Testament prophesying, or the duty of Christian brethren 
speaking to one another " unto edification, and exhortation, and 
comfort," by adducing an extract from the writings of the celebrated 
Dr. John Owen. The reader will find it in his Exposition of the 
Epistle to the Hebrews, ch. iii. 13. Thus he writes : 

" The Apostle having declared to the Hebrews the pernicious 
consequence of departing from God, through the deceitfulness of 



CF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., J. A. S. 



515 



sia, and the danger that professors are in of so doing, singles out 
the duty of Mutual Exhortation, as a signal means of prevent- 
ing it. And, as great weight is hereby laid upon it, so great honour 
is done unto it. There are many practical duties which are ne- 
glected because they are not understood ; and they are not under- 
stood because they are supposed to have no difficulty in them, but 
to lie open to every careless enquiry. High notions, curious spe- 
culations, and knotty controversies, are thought to deserve men's 
utmost diligence in their search and examination ; but, as for those 
practical duties, it is taken for granted that they are well enough 
understood, if they were but practised accordingly. And yet it 
will be found that the great wisdom of faith consists in a spiritual 
acquaintance with the true nature of these duties, which are there- 
fore practically neglected because they are not doctrinally under- 
stood. The duty of exhortation is incumbent on some by virtue 
of their office, and on others by virtue of special love. Ministers 
of the Gospel have a special call to this duty of constant exhorta- 
tion, that is, of persuading the souls of men to constancy and 
growth in faith and obedience; to watchfulness and diligence against 
the deceitfulness of sin, deducing their motives and arguments from 
the word of God, in the name and authority of Christ; and attention 
to it is the most important part of their ministerial office : but this 
ministerial work is not that which the Apostle has in view in Heb. 
iii. 13; for. There is a duty in reference to exhortation which is 
mutual among believers, founded in their common interest, and 
proceeding from special love. And it is this special love which 
distinguishes it from another duty of the same general nature 
which we owe unto all mankind; for the eternal law of nature 
binds us to love our neighbours as ourselves. But the duty here 
intended, is confined to those who are brethren in the same fellow- 
ship of professing the Gospel, and proceeds from that mutual love 
■which is wrought in them by the Spirit of Christ, and required of 
them by the law of Christ. 

** In order to perform this duty aright, it is necessary that those 
who undertake it, should be actuated by a special concern for the 
persons with whom, and the things about which, they treat in their 
exhortations. Tlie duty will not admit of any pragmatical curiosity 



516 MEMOIRS or THE MFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS^ 

leading men to interpose in matters with which tliey are no way 
concerned. " Knowing the terrors of the Lord," says the Apostle, 
" we persuade men," 2 Cor. v. 11. The reason why we exhort or 
persuade men to their duty is, because of our compassion towards 
them, knowing, as we do, the terrors of the Lord, and how fearful 
a thing it is to fall into his hands. If men do not find themselves 
really concerned about tlie glory of God, and their hearts touched 
with compassion towards the souls of men, whether they be in office 
in the Church or not, it will be their wisdom to abstain from the 
duty, as being a thing which they are no way qualified to discharge. 
Wisdom, understanding, and ability, are also requisite to the proper 
discharge of the duty ; for there is nothing that may not be spoiled 
in the manner of its performance. If men have not a sound judg- 
ment of the understanding of the matter about which this mutual 
exhortation is to be exercised, and the way in which it is to be 
managed, they would do well to resign it to those who are better 
furnished with the tongue of the learned, and who know to speak 
a word in season. The Apostle speaks of the generality of Chris- 
tians, in those primitive times, as being so " filled with knowledge, 
that they were able to admonish one another," Rom. xv. 14. Those 
who undertake this duty must be sure that they have a word of 
truth for their warrant, that those who are exhorted may hear 
Christ speaking in it ; for whatever influence other words or rea- 
sonings may have on their affections, their consciences will be 
unconcerned about them. The duty should also be performed 
with good and comfortable words — words of consolation and en- 
couragement — for the original term signifies to comfort as well as 
exhort. Harsh, morose, severe expressions, are exceedingly unsuit- 
able to this duty : they should be such as wisdom deduces from 
love, care, tenderness, compassion, and other similar kind affections. 
These open the heart and soften it, and greatly facilitate the en- 
trance into it of the things insisted on. Add to which, that especial 
care should be taken to afford a suitable example in the walk and 
conversation of the person who exhorts; for if the contrary be 
observed, it will quickly frustrate the weightiest language that 
looks another way. Exhortation is nothing but an encouragement 
given to others to walk with us in the ways of God and the 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. 8. 



517 



Gospel. " Be ye followers of me," saith Paul, " even as I am of 
Christ." 

Were it not that these remarks are so much extended, I should 
be disposed now to show, that, though it be quite impracticable to 
attempt to carry out this duty either in the Methodist congrega- 
tions, or the generality of dissenting churches, gathered upon the 
one man system ; yet, nothing is more capable of proof, than that 
in all the primitive apostolic churches, ample scope was afforded 
for private gifted brethren, speaking during the public worship on 
the Lord's day — " to edification, and exhortation, and comfort," in 
perfect consistency with the entire scope of the whole chapter, 
1 Cor. xiv., though Dr. Clarke has found so much difficulty in 
making out how this could be effected. But, as Dr. Owen has well 
and truly said, " the Churches of the saints are suffering under the 
confusion of a fatal apostacy, from which God in his good time will 
deliver them." 

The Love of God to a Lost World, demonstrated hy the Incarnation 
and Death of Christ; a Discourse on John iii. 16. Second edition. 
London, 18l9: 8vo, pp. 48. 

This is one of Dr. Clarice's most doctrinal pieces ; and, as the 
intelligent reader will instantly perceive, the subject of it leads to 
a discussion of the radical points at issue between the Arminians 
and the Calvinists. It is an elaborate production, marked by con- 
siderable learning and ingenuity, but by no means decisive, and 
for this reason, that while it powerfully advocates the doctrine of 
the Divine benevolence and philanthropy, it leaves unnoticed all 
the texts of Scripture, and all the arguments founded upon them, 
which go to show a limited design in the death of Christ. 

In the outset, the learned author collects into one point of view 
the various acceptations in which the Greek term o Koo-fws, the 
World, occurs in Scripture, viz. the v/hole mundane fabric, or 
system of the universe — the habitable globe— worldly possessions — 
the land of Canaan, Rom. iv. 13 (!) — the inhabitants of that coun<' 
try, viz. the Jews — the elements of Judaism, or the types, shadows^ 
and ceremonies of their religion — the Gentiles, or nations of the 



518 MEMOIR? OF THE LIFU, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

earth— the disobedient and unbelieving part of mankind — and 
lastly, all the inhabitants of the earth, all nations, classes, and 
kindreds of mankind, the whole human race; which is the sense in 
which he undtrstands the Lord Jesus Christ to use the term in his 
text. 

" God so loved rev Koo-fiov, the world, the whole human race, 
that he gave bis only begotten Son, &c. For God sent not his Son 
into the world lo condemn the world ; but that the world, through 
Him, might he saved. And again, chap. vi. 33, The bread of God 
is he who cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world, 
i. e. as God has made a plentiful provision by the manna from 
heaven, for all the Israelites in the wilderness ; and hy the productions 
of the earth, for the nourishment and support of all human beings ; 
so, by the incarnation and death of his Son Jesus Christ, He has 
made a full, perfect, and sufficient atonement, sacrifice, and obla- 
tion, for the sins of the whole world, and for the salvation of all men: 
see also chap. xiv. 31, and xvii. 24. The same apostle uses the 
term in the same sense, 1 Epist. ii. 2. He is the propitiation, 
iXao-fxos, the atoning sacrifice, for our sins, apostles and believing 
Jews ; and 7iot for ours onlg, but also nepi 6\ov row Koafxov, for the 
whole of the icorld. Gentiles as well as Jews; all the descendants of 
Adam. Where, let it be observed, that the apostle does not say 
that He died for any select part of the inhabitants of the earth, or 
for some out of everij nation, tribe, and kindred, but for all man- 
kind : and the attempt to limit the meaning of the expression here, 
or that in the Text, is a violent outrage against the plain gramma- 
tical meaning of God's word, and the infinite benevolence of His 
nature. In short, the assertion in the Text is the same, in spirit 
and design, with this most solemn declaration — Say unto them. As 
/ live, saith the Lord God, 1 have no pleasure in the death of the 
ivicked, but that the wicked tumfrotn his wag and live, Ezek. xxxiii. 
11. And with the following. This is good and acceptable in the 
sight of God our Saviour, icho will have all men to be saved, gwa^ 
come unto the knowledge of the truth, 1 Tim.ii. 3. 4. And, He is the 
Saviour of all men, specially of those who believe, 1 Tim. iv. 10, 
for he gave his life a ransom for all, lb. ii. 6, and therefore He 
is the one or only Mediator between God and men, ver. 5 ; the t\\u 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 519 

grand parties in this business, the Offended and offenders ^ the 
Judge and the criminals" 

I do not stop to point out the misapplication of many of the 
texts of Scripture here adduced, but proceed to remark that the 
Doctor enters his protest against the notion of an " elect world," 
and is very confident that " neither the term nor the thing is to be 
found in the oracles of God." Others, however, are more dispas- 
sionate, or keen sighted, and can find that as Satan has his world, 
yea, his whole world, of which he is the god and prince, Eph. ii. 2, 
1 Joh. V. 19 ; so Christ also has his world, to whom he gives life 
eternal, Joh. vi. 33 ; yea, his whole world, or "church whom he 
purchased with his blood," and brought them to God, by paying the 
ransom price of their redemption. Acts xx. 28, Ps. xxii. 27. But 
not to dwell on this, nor on the Doctor's caricature of the senti- 
ment which he opposes, and loads with appalling consequences — 
he proceeds to give a scriptural statement of the fall of our first 
parents, whereby human nature became corrupted at the fountain 
head, and all their posterity became partakers of the contagion, so 
as to need the interposition of a Saviour. He tells us " that ex- 
perience confirms the great but tremendous truth, that all mankind 
are fallen from the image of God ; and, further, that man has natu- 
rally a propensity to do evil and 7ione to do good ; yea, to do evil 
when it is most demonstrably to his own hurt ; that the great prin- 
ciples of self-love and self-interest weigh nothing against the sinful 
propensities of his mind ; that he is continually and confessedly 
running to his own ruin; and has of himself no power nor influence 
by which he can correct, restrain, or destroy, the viciousness of his 
own nature. In short, that he lieth in the wicked one, with an un- 
availing wish, yet without any efficient power to rise. Understand- 
ing, judgment, and reason, those so much boasted, strong, and 
commanding powers of the soul, which should regulate all the in- 
ferior faculties, are themselves so fallen, enfeebled, and darkened, 
and corrupted, as to spiritual good, that they see not how to co»j- 
mand, and feel not how to perform; there is therefore no hope 
that the man can raise himself from his fell, and replace himself 
in a state of moral rectitude ; for the very principles by which he 
should rise, are themselves equally fallen with all the rest. Wishing 



520 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

and willing are all that he can exercise ; but these, through want 
of moral energy, are totally inefficient : God has inspired him with 
a dc^h 0 to be saved ; and this alone places him in a salvable state. 
There is, therefore, in the human soul no se If -reviviscent power ; 
no iiimifc Li"i'^'ple which may develope itself, expand and arise; 
all is i. ^rm : all is wretched, diseased, and helpless. This view of 
the v.'-e ched state of mankind led one of the primitive fathers to 
consider the whole human race as one great diseased man, lying 
helpless, stretched out over the whole inhabited globe, from east to 
west, from north to south, to heal whom the Omnipotent Physician 
descended from Heaven." 

Now this is precisely the view which the Calvinists take of man- 
kind Lniversally in their fallen state; and on this head Dr. Clarke 
may be regarded as perfectly orthodox. But if such be their real 
condition by nature and practice, it becomes an interesting con- 
sideration, how, or by what means are any of our guilty race raised 
up from the ruins of the fall, quickened from a death in trespasses 
and sins, made alive to God here, and ultimately brought to glory ? 

To this question Dr. Clarke replies, that it is through the infinite 
love and innate goodness of God, who has provided for the rescue 
and salvation of the world, by giving his only begotten Son to die 
for it : — " God so loved the world." The love of God, then, was 
the spring and source of human redemption — and there it must 
originate, or nowhere. But how could this love be moved towards 
man ? ho\ e is composed of desire and esteem ; desire to possess, 
on account of the beauty or amiableness of the object ; esteem for 
the person, on account of mental excellence. But what was there 
in man, of beauty, amiableness, or excellence, to excite the divine 
regards, or draw forth the love of God towards him ? For what 
could he desire him ? For what could he esteem him ? Here Dr. 
Clarke finds a difficulty, which no kind of assertions can solve. 
On this enquiry the infinite disparity between God and man will 
ever present itself to the view — the perfections and independence 
of the Creator, and the worthlessness and wickedness of the crea- 
ture. What then is the apparent reason why God hath so loved the 
world P Now let us hear how the learned Doctor solves this 
difficulty. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 521 

" Strange as it may appear, I am led to conclude that we shall 
not get a satisfactory answer to this question, without having re- 
course to the creation of man. I will lay down as an axiom, what 
I think will not be disputed, and what cannot be successfully con- 
troverted, that man is the creature of GocTs love. Let us figure to 
ourselves, for we may innocently do it, the state of the Divine Na- 
ture previously to the formation of the human being. Infinitely 
happy, because infinitely perfect and self-sufficient, the Supreme 
Being could feel no wants ; — to Him nothing was wanting, nothing 
needful. As the good man is satisfied from Aime//", from the con- 
templation of his conscious rectitude ; so, comparing infinitely 
great with small things, the Divine Mind was supremely satisfied 
with the possession and contemplation of its own unlimited excel- 
lencies. From unmixed, unsullied goodness, sprang all the end- 
lessly varied attributes, perfections, and excellencies, of the Divine 
Nature; or rather in this principle all are founded, and of this 
each is an especial modification. Benevolence is, however, an 
aflfection inseparable from goodness. God the all-sufljcient knew, 
that He could, in a certain way, communicate influences from His 
own perfections: but the being must resemble Himself, to which 
the communication could be made. His benevolence, therefore, 
to communicate and diflfuse His own infinite happiness, we may 
naturally suppose, led Him to form the purpose of creating intelli- 
gent beings, to whom such communication could be made. He, 
therefore, in the exuberance of His eternal goodness, projected the 
creation of man, whom He formed in His own image, that he might 
be capable of those communications. Here, then, was a motive 
worthy of eternal goodness, the desire to communicate its own 
blessedness ; and here was an object worthy of the Divine wisdom 
and power, the making an intelligent creature, a transcript of His 
own eternity, meat melohim, Ps. viii. 5, just less than God; and 
endowing him with powers and faculties of the most extraordinary 
and comprehensive nature . 

'* I do not found these observations on the supposition of certain 
excellencies possessed by man previously to his fall : I found them 
on what he is now. I found them on his vast and comprehensive 
understanding ; on his astonishing powers of ratiocination ; on the 

3x 



522 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

extent and endless variety of his imagination or inventive faculty : 
and I see the proof and exercise of these in his invention of arts 
and sciences. Though fallen from God, morally degraded and de- 
praved, he has not lost his natural powers : he is yet capable of 
the most exalted degrees of knowledge in all natural things ; and 
his knowledge is power. 

*' Let us take a cursory view of what he has done, and of what 
he is capable : — He has numbered the stars of heaven ; he has 
demonstrated the planetary revolutions, and the laws by which they 
are governed ; he has accounted for every apparent anomaly in the 
various affections of the heavenly bodies ; he has measured their 
distances, determined their solid contents, and weighed the sun ! 

" His researches into the three kingdoms of nature, the animal, 
vegetable, and mineral, are, for their variety, correctness, and im- 
portance, of the highest consideration. The laws of matter, of 
organized and unorganized beings, and those chemical principles 
by which all the operations of nature are conducted, have been in- 
vestigated by him with the utmost success. He has shewn the 
father of the rain, and who has begotten the drops of dew ; he has 
accounted for the formation of the snow, the hail-stones, and the 
ice ; and demonstrated the laws by which the tempest and tornado 
are governed ; he has taken the thunder from the clouds ; and he 
plays with the lightnings of neaven! 

" He has invented those grand subsidiaries of life, the lever, the 
screw, the wedge, the inclined plane, and the pulley ; and by these 
means multiplied his power beyond conception : he has invented 
the telescope, and by this instrument has brought the hosts of 
heaven almost into contact with the earth. By his engines he has 
acquired a sort of omnipotency over inert matter ; and produced 
effects, which, to the uninstructed mind, present all the appearance 
of supernatural agency. By his mental energy he has sprung up 
into illimitable space ; and has seen and described those worlds 
which an infinite skill has planned, and an infinite benevolence 
sustains. He has proceeded to all describable and assignable 
limits, and has conceived the most astonishing relations and affec- 
tions of space, place, and vacuity ; and yet, at all those limits, he 
has felt himself unlimited : and still cau imagine the possibility of 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, JLL. D., F. A. S. 



523 



worlds and beings, natural and intellectual, in endless variety, 
beyond the whole. Here is a most extraordinary power — describe 
all known or conjectured beings, and he can imagine more — point 
out all the ^ooc? that even God has promised, and he qoxi dedre still 
greater enjoyments ! 

After having made the boldest excursions to the heavens, he 
has dared even to the heavens of heavens; and demonstrated the 
being and attributes of God, not only by proofs drawn from His 
works, but by arguments d j:?riori, from which all created nature is 
necessarily excluded ! These are among the boldest efforts of the 
human mind. 

" What has man not done ? And of what is he not capable ? 
To such powers and energies what limits can be assigned ? Do 
not all his acts shew that he is fearfully and wonderfully made ? 
And if such be the shadow, what was the substance P If such is 
fallen man, what was he before his fall? And what is the necessary 
conclusion from the whole ? It is this: the creature in question 
was made for God ; and nothing less than God can satisfy his in- 
finite desires. His being and his powers give the fullest proof that 
the saying of the wise man is perfectly correct : ' God created man 
to be immortal; and made him to be an image of His own eternity.' 
Wisd. ii. 23. 

" * But is not this over-rating human excellence, and enduing 
man with a dignity and perfection little consistent with the doctrine 
of the fall ?' — I answer, No. I have appealed to facts, and facts 
within the knowledge of all men; and such facts as amply support 
all the reasoning which has been founded upon them. But, after 
all these proofs of natural excellence, we have ten thousand others 
of his internal moral depravity, and alienation from the Divine life. 
The general tenor of his moral conduct is an infraction of the laws 
of his Creator. While lord oi the lower world, he is a slave to the 
vilest and most degrading passions : he loves not his Maker ; and 
is hostile and oppressive to his fellows. In a word, he is as fear- 
fully and wonderfully vile, as he was fearfully and wonderfully 
made : and all this shews most forcibly, that he stands guilty be- 
fore God ; and is in danger of perishing everhistingly. 

" Now, in these two things, the physical unu intellectual great- 

\ 



524» MEMOIR? OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

ness of man, and his moral depravity and baseness, lies the reason 
of human redemption. As he is guilty, polluted, and morally in- 
capable of helping himself, he stands in need of a Redeemer, to 
save him from everlasting destruction. As he is one of the noblest 
works of God ; that in which He has manifested His skill, power, 
and goodness, in the most singular manner ; he is worthy to be 
redeemed. ' For it was not proper,' as St. Athanasius observes, 
* that those should perish who were once partakers of the image of 
God :' To save such a creature from such a final destruction of the 
end for which he was created, was an object worthy the interposi- 
tion even of God Himself. He knew the powers with which He 
had endued him ; and He loves every work of His hand in propor- 
tion to the degree of impression it bears of His own excellence. 
Though man has sinned, and has become universally depraved ; 
yet, he has lost none of his essential faculties — they still remain : 
and the grandeur of the ruins shews the unrivalled excellence and 
perfection of the original building. God cannot forsake the work 
of His hands : and He still beholds him as radically the noblest of 
His creatures. And as the attention of God must be fixed on each 
of His works in proportion to its excellency, and the greatness of 
the design for which He had formed it ; man, as the most noble of 
His creatures, and made for the highest ends, must be the object 
of His peculiar regards. Of no creature but man is it said, that 
it was made in the image and likeness of God. Neither the thrones, 
dominions, principalities, powers, cherubim, seraphim, archangels, 
or angels, have shared this honour. It is possible, that only one 
order of created beings could be thus formed. And is it not on 
this account, that Jesus took not upon Him the nature of the 
angels, but the seed of Abraham ; him with whom the covenant of 
redemption was made for Jews and Gentiles Now, in this supe- 
rior excellence of the human nature, do we not find a solution of the 
difficulty, why Godi passed by angels, to redeem man: and why. He 
so loved the human race as to send his only begotten Son into the 
world to die for its redemption ?" 

The reader, who has now for the first time cast his eye over this 
extract, may well be allowed to pause and deliberate on what he 
has read: it certainly aflfords abundant materials for thinking. 



OP THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 525 

Though I am far from agreeing with every sentiment contained in 
it, and am of opinion that the Doctor's attempt to find out dignity 
and worth enough in the soul of man to account for the love of 
God, in giving his beloved Son to die the accursed death of the 
cross for his redemption, is contrary to the mind of the Scriptures, 
and tends to detract from the riches of Divine Mercy and sove- 
reignty of Divine Grace in his redemption ; yet I certainly think 
his description of man's original grandeur, as formed in the image 
of his Maker, and also of the powers and capabilities of the human 
soul in its fallen state, has not often been placed in a more striking 
light. Some may not be prepared to acquiesce in his notion of the 
superiority of the human to the angelic nature, and be disposed to 
regard this as one of Dr. Clarke's paradoxes ; yet, I think we must 
all admit, that man was formed by his munificent Creator to be 
lord of this lower world, and vested with dominion over every 
other creature which inhabits it — in such a manner as to be the 
representative of his Maker, on whom alone he was dependent for 
life and happiness. We cannot have a proper view of the goodness 
of God to his creature, man, without looking back to his paradisai- 
cal state, and keeping our eye fixed on what the Scriptures describe 
him to have been before sin entered into the world, and drew along 
with it its attendant train of evils. The subject is too much kept 
out of sight by our modern theologians, though a most important 
branch of knowledge to all the human race. And even what the 
human mind is still capable of in exploring the works of God, and 
receiving intimations of the Divine mind, and impressions of his 
character, through that medium, is seldom brought forward as it 
deserves. I mention this merely as an apology for laying before 
the reader an extract of some length, from a volume which has 
made its appearance since Dr. Clarke's decease ; he will readily 
perceive the afiinity which it bears to the subject of the extract 
lately made from the Doctor's sermon. 

" It was a superb destiny that man should be appointed to be 
the image and likeness of God ; but it is emphatically revealed to 
us, in Gen. 26, that this was the object of his creation ; and this 
fact and principle are repeatedly alluded to afterwards, m both the 
Jewish and Christian Scriptures. It is thereby made a prominent 



526 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

truth, and as such demands our most intellectual meditation. Let 
us consider by what process this sublime result weis intended to be 
produced. 

"Man consists, like the animal classes, of a material body, and 
of an immaterial principle of intellectual life. But he differs from 
them in this great and distinguishing peculiarity, that his mental 
principle is of a diviner nature, and is stated to have originated 
from the Deity Himself. For, after mentioning his material for- 
mation from earthly elements, * the dust of the ground,' the sacred 
record expressly adds, that his Creator ' breathed into his nostrils 
the breath of life, and man became a living soul,' Gen. ii. 7. He 
became a living soul because this Divine breath was breathed into 
his bodily frame. No difference of origin could be more distinctly 
marked. Solomon has impressively signified his clear perception 
of it by those discriminating words ; — ' Then shall the dust return 
to the earth as it was j and the spirit shall return unto God who 
gave it,' Eccl. xii. 7. 

*' I -will not here enter into a metaphysical description of the 
nature of the human soul. We all see and feel its difference from 
the animal mind, and its great, unapproachable, and ever-increasing 
superiority. Its progressive, and, as yet, unlimited, improved abi- 
lity, is quite sufficient to distinguish it, permanently and specifi- 
cally, from all other classes of life or mind that are known upon 
our earth. Its origin was the Divine breath. It is therefore an 
emanation from the Divine Spirit, and in this sacred source of its 
existence, its similitude to its Creator began. Its intellectual and 
moral powers and qualities may be assumed to have a proportioned 
resemblance in essential nature, though but in remote miniature, 
and infinitely inferior. We feel and think in some respect and 
degree like our Great Author, however diminutive the proportion 
may be. We are addressed by Him throughout all His revelations, 
as if we did so — He has therefore made our intelligent spirit in 
such a likeness to His own, that there can be intercourse and 
communion, and sympathy, affection and affinity between man and 
his God. His sacred mind can at all times, from this similarity, 
make itself intelligible to us, and perceptible by us. He can at all 
times impress our sensibilities, and communicate His influences 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



5£7 



We are essentially His image and likeness in our original nature 
and capacities; and the more steadily and successfully we advance 
to all the attainable perfections of our being, the more complete 
the actual assimilation will become. It is for us to accelerate the 
grand consummation of our destiny. At present, the general habit 
is rather deterioration than progress — a diminution and degrada- 
tion of the original similitude, instead of its preservation and en- 
largement. 

" Thus capacitated by its sublime origin, to receive and feel and 
comprehend the ideas and sentiments of the Divine mind, an ample 
store of these was prepared for the human soul, in the rich, the 
splendid, and the multifarious creations of the external world 
which was provided for its habitation. In the objects of creation 
which surround us, we see in actual realization invisible intelligi- 
bility ; the merit — the feelings — the thoughts — and the powers of 
our God. Creation is a peculiar representation to us, and to us 
alone, of the intellectual nature and capabilities of our Creator. 
It not only presents His ideas to us in sensible realities, and causes 
these to come to us in our sensorial impressions, but it is also an 
intentional selection of such of them as He wished and resolved 
to become known to us, and to be parts of our understanding. His 
works within our ken do not show to us all His powers. He has 
not exhausted himself in our Globe. No single World can have 
such an effect. No number of Worlds could completely display 
Him. Omnipotence will always be greater than what it produces. 
To be Almighty, is to have a boundless and endless power of Crea- 
tion; and whatever such a Being chooses to form, is only a portion 
of what He can create. Each operation is an additional display 
of His illimitable possibilities. Every one contributes to enlarge 
the sense and certainty of them, to all who can contemplate them 
without ever marking their boundary, or approaching to their ces- 
sation. 

" In the myriads of shining Orbs above us, which our science has 
now attained to descry, and which have been multiplied by im- 
proved telescopes, from the tliousand to the million numeration, 
we have so many further repreeentetions of His omnipotent mind, 
and of its realized conceptions and will. Each of these spheres of 



528 MEMOIRS OF TH£ LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINOt, 

being contains so many distinct and augmenting displays of His 
intellectual character and powers. It is by His Creations only that 
He can give to His rational creatures an adequate knowledge of 
His intelligence and potentiality. What He thus makes perceptible 
to them, is that which is to constitute their knowledge, and to form 
their ideas ; and we cannot have any other. Our science arises 
from the study of His works, and of their laws and designed phe- 
nomena. Nature is His own chosen representation of Himself to 
our sight and observation. He has placed it before us, and around 
us, and above us, in an endless variety of forms, in order that, by 
contemplating and knowing it. His mind, as there revealed, may 
become our mind, and His science our science. By this admirable 
and gracious plan — in this sublime school of Divine instruction, 
which makes the learning we imbibe a delight and a blessing. He 
begins the process of forming our mind to be thus far the intellect 
tual image of His own — a marvellous result by an interesting pro- 
cess ; but a result, which no one, who calmly reasons, can dispute 
or deny. For, what knowledge have we, but that which is derived 
from Himself, or from the external World ? — and what is that 
World but His Creation ? — and what is Creation, but the compo- 
sition, structure, and arrangement of all things, according to His 
previous designs, plans, intentions, will, and mandate ? In study- 
ing Creation, in any of its departments, we therefore study His 
mind ; and all that we can learn from it must be His ideas, His 
purposes, and His performances. No author, in his composition — 
no artificer, in his mechanism, can more truly display their talents 
and ideas to others, than the unseen Creator manifests His thoughts 
and intelligence to us in the systems and substances which He has 
formed, and presents to our continual contemplation. In this sense 
Nature is an unceasing revelation of them to us. 

" This grand truth leads us to perceive that the chief object of 
the multifarious richness and diversity of His Earthly Creations, 
was to convey to the human mind, and to all its generations from 
age to age, and as every new race arose to every individual of it, 
that knowledge and participation of Himself which He desired to 
be a permanent part of the human mind, and to train it into a 
likeness to His. The varioug departments of Nature — the Plane- 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 529 

tary, the terraqueous, the vegetable, and the animal — constitute, 
with His subsequent communications, the knowledge which He has 
selected and appointed to be the knowledge of mankind ; and to 
be that portion of his own knowledge which He wishes them to 
possess. Of this. He settled that our ideas should be formed, and 
to these provided materials should be confined, for beyond them 
we cannot go. We must furnish our minds from this large and 
diversified provision. We must give them this knowledge or none. 
We cannot give them any other while we reside here. Another 
world will open a new scene of His Creations, and in them afford 
us new displays of His intellect, and new materials of sensation, 
perception, thought and feeling. But in the present, we can only 
obtain what is before us and about us. Of this we may take and ac- 
quire as much or as little knowledge as we please. The more we im- 
bibe the more we shall be in this respect His image and His likeness. 
Most of us are contented with a moderate portion, many with a gene- 
ral outline, some with a very slight and superficial survey ; others 
with almost none. This is left to our personal taste and choice. It 
is ever inviting us to make it our possession, and it rewards with 
mental happiness, every spirit that will acquire it; no other enjoyr 
ment is so unsatiating or so lasting ; nor can its abundance be ex- 
hausted. The most informed and indefatigable philosopher has 
yet as much to learn and discover as he has appropriated. My- 
riads are now exploring nature in all directions, and find that the 
more new facts of its beings, laws, substances, and qualities they 
discern, the more they also perceive remains unfathomed. Nothing 
in it, that has a material form^ can be pronounced to be unknow- 
able. Human sagacity still finds every region of substances pene- 
trable, yet further by its patient industry and continued thought. 
We are gaining more insight into principles, laws, and phenome- 
na, every year of our existence. The grand system and its active 
agencies, and -their diversified results, are becoming more distinctly 
seen by every fresh generation of human inquirers. The Creator 
becomes more fully known as His earthly compositions are better 
understood ; and thus Man, His noblest earthly work, is now more 
completely fulfilling the grandest purposes of his Creator, than at 
any prior period of his prolonged existence; and it is every year 

3 Y 



530 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

advancing, both individually and generally, as society improves, 
into that resemblance to his Creator which at his original forma- 
tion he was ordained to bear. 

" We need not ask why that particular kind of knowledge which 
the earthly Creations display, was appointed to form and consti- 
tute the mind of man, because this question would be equally ap- 
plicable to every other possible kind of knowledge ; and the right 
answer must always be, that it is what the wisdom of the Creator 
has decided to be the most proper for His human race, most bene- 
ficial to them, and most improving. Indeed all other kinds of 
knowledge would probably have only a similar result, for they 
would all be, and could only be, so many conceptions and exe- 
cuted operations of His Divine mind — they would be only different 
portions of His ideas — they could originate only from Him. Every 
sphere of being is only a varied portraiture of Himself, so far as its 
Creations extend. Each conveys to its inhabitants that will duly 
contemplate the works they can perceive, so much of the Divine 
thoughts, feelings and will, as their substances and agencies exem- 
plify. Hence all kinds of knowledge from nature are valuable to 
us, and our own world as effective for our improvement, as any 
other, in this view is likely to be. 

** Such an external world having been provided to give to the 
only intelligent Beings that were to inhabit it, who could explore 
and comprehend it, this knowledge of their Creator, and this par- 
ticipation of His intelligence ; He formed this race of beings upon 
these principles : He made their bodies of material particles, like 
tliose of other animals. He gave them an analogous system of 
functions and limbs, of nerves and muscles ; but though He assimi- 
Jated them very much to quadrupeds in their interior structure. 
He has distinguished them with an external beauty of form, of 
countenance, of position, and of size, to which no animated crea- 
ture on earth has any parallel, or to which it makes any near ap- 
proach. The Ape has the greatest similarity in stature and figure, 
but is deformity itself in comparison with the elegance, the har- 
mony, the proportions, the movement, and the gestures of our 
superior being. Nothing animal resembles the varied expression 
of the human eye. Nothing approaches the charm of the human 



or l liE REV. ADAM CLARKE. LL. D., F. A. S 



smile. N )ne liave the coloured beauty, the delicacy, and tlie soft- 
ness of the human skin. None possess man's lofty elevation of 
head and upward look, and the soul-expressing features of his at- 
tractive countenance, interesting and intellectual in both sexes, 
but peculiarly lovely in all well nurtured children, and in many a 
female form. No mind has conceived, and no art produced, any 
beauty of material figure surpassing that which nature has exhi- 
bited in some or other of her human progeny. Has this, indeed, 
in its most realized perfection, been ever equalled by the finest 
Creations of the painter, the sculptor, or the poet ? 

"The general circumstances which have been observed and stated, 
of our intellectual nature, sufficiently evince that the human soul 
is as clearly distinguished from all animal raind^,' notwithstanding 
the partial resemblances that exist, as the bee is from th-e sponge, 
or the elephant from the oyster. Independent of all metaphysical 
discrimination, the literature, the history, the arts, the mechanisms, 
and the manufactures of mankind, all that enriches, ennohles,. and 
delights a cultivated nation, show at once, with an irresistible cer- 
tainty, the immense superiority of the human soul. It has disco- 
vered and acquired the sciences, composed the works, displayed 
the feelings, performed the actions, and created the buildings, the 
ships, the paintings, the statues, the music, and all the other won- 
ders of civilized society. These are sufficient facts to separate the 
human spirit from the animal mind. That never improves, that, 
in no age or country, has effected any progression ; though it sees, 
hears, and feels as we do, and thinks and reason, walls and judges 
on its perceptions, so far as its appetites are concerned, much as 
we do on ours. But there is its limit ; beyond that small, though 
useful circle, it never advances. In our appetites, and the mental 
agency which they stimulate and acquire, we have a kinship and a 
similitude, but no farther. When our moral principles begin, 
when our improvabilities develope, when we rise beyond our ani- 
mal wants and desires, when we study nature, when we cultivate 
literature, when we seek after knowledge, when the reason and the 
sympathies ascend to their Creator— we distinguish our spirit from 
the animal mind for ever. To none of these things can that rtttaiu. 
It is incapable of either receiving or comprehending ' them^ and 



532 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

these ennobling powers and their phenomena express and illustrate 
the amazing difference which parts us from our fellow brutes, more 
impressively than any verbal definitions or descriptive particula- 
rity. Their faculties, instincts, and powers are admirable for their 
class of being, and enlarge our notions of the benevolence as well 
as of the Al mightiness of our Common Maker; but they bearno 
comparison with the transcending capacity, qualities and achieve- 
ments of their human masters. 

" The soul of man, indeed, exhibits a greatness, a strength, a pe- 
netration, an expansibility, and a creative power, which urge us to 
inquire if any Order of being, except the Divine Source of all that 
exists, is superior to what the human spirit now is in its essential 
nature, and will become in its most perfect state. It is not easy to 
suppose that any can be superior to that species of Being which 
the Deity deliberately and purposely made to be the image and 
likeness of Himself, and whose vital spirit was His own breath. 
What created nature can transcend such a formation and origin ? 
Seraphic Beings may differ in qualities and knowledge. They 
must do so, if their form and sphere be dissimilar to our own 
Our knowledge is derived from our senses and external world, as 
theirs we may assume to occur to them from their faculties and 
their locality. All knowledge gives power in its possessor, accord- 
ing to its nature ; the power that follows from possessing it, and 
from acting with it, and upon its suggestions, and by its guidance. 
This power it produces in the persons that attain it, beyond what 
others have who are deficient in it. A man who has acquired the 
knowledge of ship-building, of metallurgy, or of watch-making, 
has a power which I have not. He can do what I am unable to 
perform — he can make a ship, iron metal, and instruments, or a 
watch : as another, who has acquired weaving knowledge, can 
fabricate cloth or cotton dresses ; and other artists a portrait, a 
bust, or musical concerto, and a thousand other conveniencies of 
domestic and social life. 

We have no personal knowledge that there are any beings in 
existence beside ourselves ; but this is no reason for our denying 
or disbelieving that there are any. We have no personal know- 
ledge of the mariae animals that are now living at the bottom 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, hL. D., F. A. S. 



533 



of the ocean ; but we may be certain that myriads or millions of 
animated forms are there. We know nothing of the tribes that are 
occupying the centre of Africa — the undiscovered islands and the 
unvisited regions of our earth, — but we can rationally and positive- 
ly infer that these places contain human beings, as well as many 
birds, quadrupeds, and insects. We know that the localities for their 
habitation are subsisting, and we add the deduction of their exis- 
tence from the analogies of our experience of the rest of our globe, 
"with which we are more acquainted. We make the same kind of 
conclusion from the radiant orbs we see above us. The planets 
which move like ourselves round the sun, and the stationary stars 
which seem like suns themselves, are sensible proofs that material 
worlds exist, on which sentient or intelligent beings may live, as we 
do here ; and it is more reasonable to suppose they are occupied by 
such, than that they are mere brute substances, vacant of all life 
and feeling. No educated mind therefore can doubt that the uni- 
verse is replenished with as many spheres of animated beings, as 
there are radiant or reflecting orbs fitted for their abodes. But it 
does not at all follow, from the certainty of their existence, that 
they are in spirit and intellect, and therefore in the power which 
results from mental capacity, of a superior order to ourselves. 

" But the inhabitants of the Planetary and Starry Worlds, and 
of all etherial regions, amid or beyond them, must differ from us 
in knowledge, and in that possess the superiority which any know- 
ledge gives to those who are without it. If their worlds of residence 
were exactly like our earth, they could have no other materials of 
knowledge tlian those which we are enjoying and would thereby only 
be upon an equality with us, but if the composition, the structure, 
the laws, qualities, agencies, and relations of their places of resi- 
dence, differ from ours, the knowledge of each order of being must 
be proportionally dissimilar. Yet dissimilitude is not in itself es- 
sential to superiority. Each world would be superior to the other 
in its own peculiar knowledge, which differed from that of the other 
and of which the latter was deficient ; but neither might be une- 
qual in the ability to attain it, in the same state and circumstances. 
Thus, we possess the advantage of knowing the laws, and phenome- 
na, and qualities of our terrestrial habitation, and its living crea- 
tures, which. Angels who do not live among us, but reside under a 



534 



MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



di{ferent economy of persons and things, have not attained ; and 
theywoidd tran^scend us in the knowledge and use of all that was 
peculiar to thsmselves. They could not form our manufactures 
until they acquired our sf nsations. and learnt like us to do so. 
Nor couid we imitate them, without education, perceptions, and ex- 
ertions, correspondently appropriate. 

" But knowledge is only the furniture, the materials, and the in- 
struments of the mind — and not the mind or spirit itself. This may 
be alike in all classes of intelligent beings, and their dissimilarities 
of power and qualities may result from their material frame, and 
appropriated world. As the Planets are material structures, and 
the Stars seem also to be extended substances, it would be most con- 
gruous with all that we know, to suppose that the Beings which in- 
habit them have also material forms, of some sort or other. It is 
not easy, from our experience, to conceive how any created spirit 
can act on external matter, without a material organization. The 
necessity of this addition to our Soul, in order to give it power over 
outward things, induces us to suppose, that the same medium of 
effective agency is requisite to all other created natures, that have 
to live in substantial abodes, and with creatures and things of a si- 
milar solidity. Hence it is, perhaps, that our own Spirit, to enjoy 
its destined renovation, and celestial beatification, is appointed to 
have another corporeal organization, although of a far more spiritual 
and excelling kind to its present bodily system. 

*'But all science, all phenomena, all knowledge, and all powers 
can originate to every oj-b and order of beings from one source, 
only — the Divine Fountain of ail. Every World of existence must 
have been His conception and production ; and every form and spi- 
rit which are within it. His mind has constructed each ; the same 
mind; the same potentiality; with the same moral and intellectual 
nature and perfections. But as every being can only act like itself 
and be itself in all things — so pre-eminently the First and Greatest 
of all : and it is therefore to be inferred, that all its creations will 
display their Maker with an harmonious similarity. He must ap- 
pear alike in all. His essential character and predominant quali- 
ties will mark and pervade every sphere He may form, on the pi-in- 
ciple, that He cannot but be, at all times and in all things, Himself. 
All the Worlds of His immense Universe will therefore alike exhi- 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., E. A. S. 



535 



bit their Creator to their intellectual populations. He may arrange 
the particles of matter into new configurations, and within these 
modify his etherial agencies by millions of millions of diversified 
forms. He has done so with the material elements of our Earth. 
Both the Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms display, this multifari- 
ous variety. But still one principle of formation, one system of 
creating mind — one maker, one will, one kind and character of intel- 
ligence, appears in all. Every thing is exuberantly diversified, 
but notiiing inconsistent or contradictory. There is linked and 
adjusted counteraction ; but no incongruity, hostility, or absurdity. 
We may apply these remarks to every orb of being we survey. The 
same god ; the same accordant system of Creation ; the same form- 
ing mind ; the same character of thought and will ; the same prin- 
ciples of agency and intention ; the same moral and intellectual at- 
tributes or perfections ; the same science and sympathies — may 
be expected to appear in all ; and to cause iji all their several in- 
habitants a similitude of impressions, feelings, and conduct. 

" From this view, may we not suppose that in nature, virtues, 
reason, and mental sensibilities, and in the great outlines and con- 
stituting principles of knowledge and thought, the Angelic classes, 
and all intelligent beings; and therefore the human race, may have 
the greatest resemblance to each other ? — and that their difference 
will arise chiefly, from the different use which they make of their 
essential qualities and attainments : and from the varying and ap- 
propriate material knowledge, which the peculiar external world 
of each may occasion, and enable them respectively to acquire ? As 
far as Sacred History has disclosed any circumstances of this sort 
to us, the parallel has some foundation. There could be a Satan 
among Angels, as well as an Adam among men. Both orders of 
being are therefore fallible ; both furnish instances of transgression. 
Thus the suggestion, that the Human Spirit may, in its essential 
nature, in its improvable capacities, and in its powers and possibili- 
ties of progression, be inferior to no order of being which the Gen- 
eral Creator has been pleased to form, seems not to be an irrational 
or an unwarranted conclusion."* 

* Sacred History ot the World, by Sharon Turner, F, S. A. nnd R. A. S. L., 
p.p. 520, to 535. 



536 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

On this quotation I leave the reader to make his own reflections. 
The subject is both curious and interesting, and deserves a serious 
consideration. The author's sentiments on the dignity of human 
nature do not differ very materially from those of Dr. Clarke, but 
the grand inquiry should be, how far they are sanctioned and sup- 
pcrl.-d by divine revelation. That there are certain instances and 
respects in which the human is inferior to the Angelic nature re- 
quires liitie proof. Angels are expressly said to be " greater in 
power and might," 2 Pet. ii. 11. and the inspired writers uniformly 
renresent them as spiritual beings, and the highest order of crea- 
tures ill nature, dignity, and power. It is evidently spoken of as an 
instance of amazing condescension in the eternal Word, to have 
passed Hby the nature of Angels and taken part in flesh and blood 
with tlse children of men, Heb. ii. 16. They are not like us, sub- 
ject to inort ali y, affliction, and death — and in conducting the affairs 
of nations, they seem, under the former dispensation, to have been 
vested with authority far superior to that of man, Heb. ii. 5. But 
not to dwell longer on this point; — 

Dr. Clarke's Sermon contains many excellent observations on the 
sufficiency of the atonement to expiate guilt, and reconcile sinners 
to Cod, but he appears to me to contradict the Scriptures when he 
ins:s's that the application or beneficial results of it extend to all 
the ljuman race — to every son and daughter of Adam. For, 
unless all are eventually to be brought to the enjoyment of eternal 
glory (a sentiment which he never held,) those who are saved must 
owe their salvation to something else than the death of Christ : 
whereas all the redeemed company are represented as in uniting in 
one song of praise common to them all ; " Unto him that loved us 
and washed us from our sins in his own blood — be glory, both now 
aiid for ever." According to Dr. Clarke, the Son of the Highest suf- 
fered as much for those who perish, as for those who obtain salva- 
tion. And if we ask, what occasioned the difference, the answer is, 
tiiat one class improved the grace which was given alike to all, 
while the other did not — thus hinging the benefits of Christ's re- 
deeming love on the will of the creature. Ifw^e ask what ideas 
are to be attached to the term " Grace" — we are instantly envelop- 
ed in difficulties. It is something bestowed indiscriminately on all 



OF THE REV ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S 537 

tlie human race, whether they ever hear of the way of salvation 
through Christ Jesus, or not. It is a light which enlightens every 
man that cometh into the world. As the human creature sees 
the light of the world as soon as it is born, from which it had been 
excluded while in the womb of its parent ; in like manner this hea- 
venly light shines into the soul of every man, to convince of sin, 
righteousness, and judgement; and it is through this light which 
no man brings into the with him, but which Christ mercifully 
gives to him, on his coming into it, that what is termed conscience is 
produced. No man could discern good from evil, was it not for this 
light thus supernaturally and graciously restored." ( See Dr. Clarke s 
Note on Johni. 9.) And this we are to understand to be the true 
light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world — not by 
conveying to them the knowledge of a Saviour, for it is possessed 
by millions of the human race on whom the Sun of Righteousness 
never yet diffused his cheering beams — nor by giving them the 
saving knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ whom he hath sent ; 
but enabling them to distinguish between right and wrong, between 
good and evil ! Here we seem to have arrived usque ad absurdum. 
It was probably from viewing the matter in this light that one was 
led to make the following remark : " The doctrine of free grace 
being so illustrious in the Scriptures as not to be spoken against, 
they [the Arminians] will talk as high for it in general terms as 
any other, and tell us what great pretensions their doctrine hath to 
magnify grace ; and that they design nothing more than the ho- 
nour of that ; whereas indeed it is not Grace but a contrary thing 
set up with that name; for follow the stream either upward or 
downward, and as it all arises from, so it all runs into freedom of 
will or advancement of self, as is obvious to any impartial observer." 

I formerly quoted Dr. Clarke as delivering to the people of the 
Shetland islands a demonstration that the benefits of Christ's medi- 
ation must extend to all the human race, founded solely on the 
principle that,- to effect His saving purposes. He assumed human 
nature into personal union with the Divine.* He repeats the same 
argument substantially in his Sermon on the Love of God. " That 
he died for every human soul," says he, p. 31, " for all who are 

• See page 464. 

3 z 



538 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

partakers of the same nature which He has assumed ; that the merit 
and benefits of His death must necessarily extend to all mankind, 
because He has assumed that nature which is common to all : — nor 
could the merit of His death be limited to any particular part, nation, 
tribe, or individual, of the vast human family." Now here one 
naturally asks what are the specific benefits, or blessings, which all 
the posterity of Adam inherit as the immediate and necessary result 
of the Saviour's undertaking ? It cannot be eternal life, for Dr. 
Clarke unequivocally admits that all are not saved ! that a great 
part of the human race perish in their sins. It cannot be the 
spiritual blessings, with which the God and Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ hath blessed the heirs of salvation in Him," as par- 
ticularized by the Apostle in Rom. viii. and Eph. i. such as. Justi- 
fication, or the remission of sins — predestination to the adoption of 
children — redemption from the curse of the divine law — effectual 
calling into the fellowship of the Gospel — the sealing of the Holy 
Spirit of promise— Sanctification, or holiness of heart and life — 
with the enjoyment of the eternal inheritance in the heavens. Tliese 
are invariably held forth in the apostolic writings as the blessings 
of salvation which all Christ's people inherit in virtue of his un- 
dertaking and death, and their union and connection with Him. 
But to aflirm that these blessings come upon all the human race, 
believers and unbelievers, is too monstrous a proposition to be en- 
tertained for a moment by any sane mind ! These grand and in- 
teresting benefits, which are peculiar to the Gospel of our Salvation, 
must surely be excluded from the catalogue of those which Dr. 
Clarke insists "must necessarily extend to all mankind:" and 
for this conclusive reason, because 'tis certain that all mankind 
do not possess them. But if we abstract the blessings above- 
mentioned, I would gladly know from any friend of Dr. Clarke, in 
what do those benefits consist which come upon all mankind, in 
virtue of Christ's death ? If it be answered, they are the outward 
privileges of the Gospel, it is demonstrable that these have never 
yet been bestowed upon all, nor yet on the greater part of mankind ; 
besides, many who are favored with these reap no saving benefit 
from them, because of their unbelief. And though all mankind 
shall be raised up at the last day, yet to such of them as have done 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



539 



evil, anil come forth to the resurrection of damnation, it cannot be 
called a blessing of Grace. It is not denied that there are nuine- 
lous texts of scripture which speak of the death of Christ in 
general, universal, or unlimited terms, such as, all, all mankind, 
ihe world, the whole world, every man — but such expressions must 
be limited or extended according to the nature of the subject, and 
the scope of the passages where they occur. Those of them which 
relate to the extent of Christ's death, are obviously opposed to the 
Jewish limitation ; for, the contracted notions of that people led them 
to imagine the salvation which the Messiah came to procure, and 
the blessings of his kingdom, were to be confined to their nation, 
exclusive of the Gentiles: which was expressly contrary to the 
promise made to Abraham, respecting them, viz. " In thy seed shall 
ALL THE ^'ATIONS OF THE EARTH be blessed," Gen. xxii. 18. Now 
that promise is explained by the Apostle Paul, Gal. iii. 18, to mean 
that " God would justify not the Jews only, but also the Heathens, 
through faith :" so that, though it is expressed in terms as unlimited 
as any of those used by the Apostles in reference to it, yet it re- 
spects only those of all nations who shall be blessed in Christ, or 
justified by faith in Him. "These are they whom he hath redeemed 
to God by his blood, out of every kindred and tongue, and people 
and nation— a great multitude which no man can number, of all 
nations," Rev, v. 9. ch. viii. 9. 

Dr. Clarke inveighs with great severity against the creed of such 
as would restrict the benefits of the Redeemer's purchase to those 
who actually obtain salvation. Nay, he proceeds far beyond this. 
1 will quote his own remarkable words : " To contract or limit 
that merit," viz. of Christ's death, that it should apply only to a 
few, or even to any multitudes short of the whole human race is one 
of those things which is impossible to God himself, because it 
involves a moral contradiction. He could no more limit the merit 
of that death, than He could limit his own eternity, or contract that 
love which induced Him to undertake the redemption of a lost 
world," p. 32. This certainly is bold : but, for my own part, 
I should be very much afraid of writing in this absolute strain 
concerning what is, and what is not, possible with God. I am 
certain that I should be treading upon very forbidden grounds I 



540 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

All I can say upon the matter is — that what the Doctor pro- 
nounces an impossihility, even to the Almighty, I find the inspired 
Apostles, one and all, declaring to be a plain matter of fact : and 
where the decisions of Dr. Adam Clarke and the Apostle Paul 
are found on different sides of any controverted point, I prefer 
ranking on the side of the Apostle ! If the posterity of Adam 
really are by nature and practice in that guilty, lost, undone, and 
ruined condition which is forcibly described by Dr. Clarke himself, 
in a page which I have lately quoted from his Sermon, I cannot 
perceive what injustice would have been done them had a holy 
God left the whole of them to perish in their sins, even as he did 
the fallen angels. Was he under any obligation to rescue any of 
them from that state of perdition into which they had voluntarily 
plunged themselves ? I conceive not. But then we are told that 
having so loved the World as to give his only begotten Son to 
suffer and die, that whosoever believeth in him might obtain salva- 
tion, it would be contrary to every principle of equity to limit the 
merit of the Redeemer's work, or apply it to only a part of the 
human race — He must save all — or at least put all into a capacity 
for saving themselves, or none. In plain terms, it would be unjust 
in God to extend the oenefits of Christ's mediation to some and 
not to all. Here then we have Dr. Clarke and the inspired Apostle 
again at issue. The latter insists, throughout all his writings, that 
" God saves his people, and calls tliem with an holy calling, not 
according to their works, but according to his own purpose and 
grace, which was given them in Christ Jesus before the world 
began," 2 Tim. i. 9. And he quotes the declaration of the blessed 
God himself, to this effect ; " I will have mercy on whom I will 
have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have com- 
passion," Rom. ix. 15. This exercise of his Sovereignty in show- 
ing mercy and compassion on whom he will, Jehovah claims as the 
brightest jewel in his crown, Exod. xxxiii. 19. though many seem 
to begrudge him of it, and load it with opprobrious epithets; 
among whom it is most painful to find Dr. Clarke. And yet, such 
is the force of truth, that it will break out, at times, in defiance of 
every effort to resist or suppress it. Accordingly, if we turn to his 
Commentary on Rom. ix. 15, " For he salth to Moses, I will have 



OF THE REV ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S 



541 



mercy on whom I will have mercy, and 1 loill have compassion on 
whom I will have compaFsion we have the following observations. 
" The words of God to Moses, Exod. xxxiii. 19. show that God 
has a right to dispense his blessings [that is, exercise mercy and 
compassion] as he pleases: for, after he had declared that he 
would spare the Jews of old, and continue them in the relation of 
his peculiar people, when they deserved to be cut off for their 
idolatry, he said : ' / will make all my goodness pass before thee ; 
and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and I will 
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and J will have compassion 
on whom I will have compassion.' As if he had said : I will make 
such a display of my perfections as shall convince you that my 
nature is kind and beneficent ; but know that I am a debtor to 
none of my creatures. My benefits and blessings are merely from 
my own good will ; nor can any people, much less a rebellioug 
people, challenge them as their due in justice or equity. And there- 
fore I now spare the Jews ; not because either you who intercede 
for them, or they themselves have any claim upon my favor, but of 
my own free and sovereign grace I choose to show them mercy and 
compassion. / will give my salvation in my own way and on my 
own terms [have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and compas- 
sion on whom I will have compassion]. He that believeth on my 
Son Jesus shall be saved ; and he that believeth not shall be 
damned. This is God s ultimate design : this purpose he will never 
change; and this he has fully declared in the everlasting gospel. 
This is the grand decree of reprobation and election." 

Now, I would gladly know what more than this it is that the 
Calvinists contend for ? If, as Dr. Clarke seems to allow, God 
bestows the blessings of salvation " of his own free and sovereign 
grace " — showing mercy and compassion on zvhom he will — giving 
His salvation in His own way, and on His own terms ; why this 
terrible outcry against His bestowing the benefits of Christ's media- 
tion on some, and dealing with others on the principles of strict 
Justice ? How comes the former to be a thing impossible with 
God — how does it involve a moral contradiction ? I profess myself 
totally unable to reconcile these apparent contradictions in the 
writings of Dr. Clarke ; and am sure that I have no wish to do 
him the slightest injustice 



542 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

Before dismissing this Sermon, which, on account of the extra- 
ordinary things it contains, has detained me much longer upon it 
than I intended : there is still one point untouched which demands 
a few remarks, namely, what relates to the Sonship of Christ. 
This was ever a favorite topic with Dr. Clarke, and he plumed 
himself in all his writings with having settled the controversy re- 
specting it. At an early part of his ministry he drew up a Creed 
or Confession of his Faith in Thirty-two Articles, which the reader 
will find, p. 90, et seq. the tenth of which respects this particular 
doctrine. But the fullest and most explicit statement of his senti- 
ments on this subject is to be found in his Commentary on Luke 
i. 35, " The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of 
the Highest shall overshadow thee : therefore, also, that holy thing 
which shall be born of thee shall be called the Sou of God." 
Having quoted this text in the Sermon under consideration, he 
thus proceeds: " I have, in a note on the preceding text, demon- 
strated, by an argument that can never be overthrown, that this is 
spoken only of the human nature of Christ: for, as to his Divine 
nature, that being properly and essentially God, cannot be either 
begotten or produced, which, however explained, is in perfect oppo- 
sition to reason and common sense ; and as far as a sentiment can 
be so, is destructive of the eternal and essential Deity of Jesus. 
By not attending to the proper meaning of ' only begotten Son,' 
some of the fathers, as well as some of the moderns, have fallen 
into strange absurdities," p. 23. 

It is much to be regretted that Dr. Clarke sliould have indulged 
so frequently in delivering what he called "demonstrations" on 
points of Theology, founding them on principles of abstract rea- 
soning, without any regard to divine revelation, the only authentic 
standard of truth and error on subjects of this kind. We have a 
notable instance of it in the case before us. I do not refer to his 
rejecting the notion of eteimal generation as applied to Christ's 
divine nature — I think with him that " the doctrine of the eternal 
SoiiMp of Christ is both unsciiptural and destructive of the Deity 
of Christ." Bnt it does not therefore follow that the title " Son of 
(iod," is expressive of his simple humanity. Had he attended to 
the scriptuivs, and submitted his own understanding to the dictates 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 543 



of inspiration, he would have learnt that this sublime title is there 
given to Jesus Christ on more accounts than one. For instance, 
it is given him 

I. On account of his Incarnation, or assumption of human na- 
ture into personal union with the divine. The angel declaring to 
the Virgin Mary that she should conceive in her womb, and bring 
forth that glorious Person who should be called the Son of the 
Highest, thus describes his wonderful divine generation : " The 
Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest 
shall overshadow thee — therefore also, that holy thing that shall 
be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God," Luke i. 35. 
Here we are not left to our own reasoning, or uncertain inferences. 
When the Scripture so expressly and of purpose gives us one rea- 
son of liis bearing the title " Son of God," we ought to rest simply 
in the testimony. To say, as Dr. Clarke does, that this is only 
giving a reason for the Sonship of his human nature, is not sense; 
for Sonship does not apply to a genus, nature, or kind, but to a 
person, or individual subsistent in a nature. Christ is not a human 
person, that he should be called a Son as such; for this would make 
him to have two persons, a divine and human. He has but one 
person, which is divine ; and which on account of its personal 
union with the manhood, is here called the Son of God. It is 
curious to notice how dexterously the disputants on this subject 
shift their ground to support a favorite hypothesis. At one time 
w e are told that Jesus is the Son of God in his divine person alone, 
abstract from humanity: but when the Scripture, as in Luke i. 35. 
gives the plain reason of his Sonship, then they flatly contradict 
themselves, and apply the title, Son of God, solely to his human 
nature. The question, however, comes shortly to this — What was 
that holy thing that was born of the Virgin ? Was it simply a 
human nature, or a Divine person incarnate ? Now the Scripture 
answers this pointedly, and tells us that the Son, which the Virgin 
conceived and brought forth, is Emmanuel, God with us, Isa. vii. 14. 
with Matt. i. 23. — that the " Child born, and Son given is the 
Mighty God, Isa. ix. 6. even the Saviour Christ the Lord, Luke 
ii. 11. It was in His conception and birth, that the Word was 
made flesh, or took upon Him the seed of Abraham, Joh. i. 14. 



544 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

Heb. ii. 16. and so that holy thing born of her was no less a person 
than *' God manifest in the flesh," 1 Tim. iii. 16. Now, if such 

was the person born of the Virgin, then this passage gives the 
reason, not why the human nature alone, as Dr. Clarke " demon- 
strates," but why his whole person, now constituted of both natures, 
is called the Son of God. The Sonship of Christ, therefore, lies 
neither in his divine nor human nature, separately considered, but 
in the union of both in his one person; and so, the begetting him 
as a Son, must be the constituting of that union ; in other words, 
the radical and primary idea of the Sonship of Christ, takes its 
rise from the incarnation of the Eternal Word, according to Joh. i. 
14. But 

II. Christ is also called the Son of God on account of his being 
begotten from the dead, and appointed heir of all things, having 
all power in heaven and in earth vested in his hands. Rev. i. 5. 
Heb. i. 2. Matt, xxviii. 18. As in the first creation he was before 
all things, and the first-born, or supreme Lord of every creature, 
since by him were all things created as their cause, and for him as 
their end ; so in the new creation he is the Beginning — the First- 
born, or First-begotten from the dead, and this not only as being 
the First-begotten of all the children of God, considered as the chil- 
dren of the resurrection, and who are also waiting for this adoption 
or Sonship, viz. the redemption of their bodies ; but also in respect 
of his sovereignty and dominion as Lord and heir of all things ; 
being God s First-born, to whom by right of primogeniture belongs 
the excellency of dignity and excellency of power. It was when 
God raised him from the dead and conferred upon him the king- 
dom and priesthood, that He said unto him, Thou art my Son, 
this day have I begotten thee." It was then that the promise made 
to David concerning him was fully accomplished ; " I will be to 
him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son." This last view of his 
Sonship supposes the divine dignity of his person, and is founded 
upon it; for who but the Mighty God could sustain such a govern- 
ment upon his shoulder, or manage the Key of the house of David, 
the keys of the invisible world and of death ? Who but He was 
worthy to receive all power in heaven and in earth as the Father's 
heir, and to be the object of all that divine homage, honour, and 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



545 



worship both from men and angels which is connected with it ? 
The amount of the whole is this — that Christ is the Son of God as 
the Word made flesh — as the first-born from the dead — and as the 
Father's heir in the kingdom and inheritance. This is the scriptural 
account of the matter, but it differs toto coelo from Dr. Clarke's 
demonstration," 

The Doctrine of Salvation by Faith proved ; or, an Answer to the 
important question, " What must I do to be saved " Second 
Edition, 1819. 

This is the Sermon which the Countess of Derby was so anxious 
to peruse, as mentioned in a former page, (see 391 ) and the subject 
is undoubtedly of the highest importance to every human being 
In a somewhat bombastic preface the author deals, as usual, in 
strong assurances of his candour, impartiality, and disinterested 
search after Truth, and the immense labour he has bestowed on 
the investigation of it by examining the originals of the sacred 
books, and translating every word of the Old and New Testaments 
for his own use and satisfaction — comparing the originals with all 
the ancient and modern versions which were within his reach ; not 
neglecting the Commentaries of the ancient Fathers, nor those of 
learned and pious men in modern times. And with singular self- 
complacency he seems to intimate that he has attained the ne plus 
ultra of human investigation ; for what else can be the import of 
the following lines ? " If there be still many branches of truth, 
relating to God and the eternal world, which He has not discovered, 
it is because they cannot be known in this state of being ; or. His 
understanding cannot comprehend them." Advertisement, p. iv. 
In plain English, he would have us to believe that he had attained 
to the knowledge of Divine Truth, in every branch, as far as is 
attainable in this state of being, or compatible with the limits of 
the human understanding! It certainly was not in this style that 
Sir Isaac Newton spoke and wrote of his wonderful discoveries in 
the world of Science. 

The present Discourse is founded on Acts xvi. 30 — the Question 
of the Philippian jailor; and after an Exordium of six pages, he 

4 a 



546 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

proposes to consider I. What is implied in being saved; and 
II. How this Salvation can be attained ? The far greater part of 
the Discourse is taken up Avith examining the various schemes 
"which human wisdom has devised for escaping the wrath to come 
and obtaining eternal life, and these the Doctor classes under the 
five following heads — I. Obedience to the law of works. II. Works 
of supererogation, such as voluntary sufferings, rigid discipline, 
severe austerities, uncommanded mortifications, &c. &c. III. Penal 
sufferings in the life to come, or the Popish doctrine of Purgatory, 
with the doctrine of the ancient and modern Universal Restitu- 
tionists. IV. The metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls: 
and V. The mere benevolence of God. Each of these schemes is 
examined seriatim, and the fallacy of the whole shown convincingly ; 
after which Dr. Clarke enters upon the scheme proposed by God 
himself and contained in the Apostle's answer to the terrified 
jailor — " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be 
saved." 

On the infinite importance of this subject it is needless to dilate; 
it must be admitted by all ; for, " What is a man profited if he 
gain the whole world and lose his own soul, or what shall a man 
give in exchange for his soul ? " Yet, astonishing as it may seem, 
the generality of mankind are not very solicitous about the matter. 
Their main attention is directed to " What they shall eat, or what 
they shall drink, or wherewithal they shall be clothed." But if we 
turn to Acts xvi, and carefully examine the state of the Philippian 
jailor, when he put this interesting question, we shall see that his 
state of mind indicated a deep and alarming conviction of guilt — 
a dread of the divine wrath due to it — a notion that something 
must be done by him to escape it, which is always the first and 
most natural thought in such circumstances — and a belief that the 
Apostles of Christ could direct him what to do. 

In his illustration of the apostolic doctrine on this occasion one 
could have wished that Dr. Clarke had shown himself to be " a 
scribe well instructed into the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven:" 
but I am compelled by a regard to truth ta say, that I think his 
illustration of the apostle's answer very defective, and liable to 
some serious objections. I shall instance in two particulars * 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S 547 

Ist I think he has given a limited and contracted view of tho 
vhjeot of saving faith — or what the jailor was called to believe 
concerning Jesus Christ. He has given a scriptural representa- 
tion of the doctrine of Christ's person, as the Creator, Preserver, 
and Governor of all things, which is no doubt a glorious truth, and 
essential to His character as the Saviour of the World. He speaks, 
too, in very explicit terms of His manifestation in the flesh — that 
He suffered and died in order to make atonement for sin ; in short 
that His sacrifice was so well pleasing to God, that He has con- 
necteil salvation with faith in it. All this is as it should be, and 
I heartily concur in it as the apostolic doctrine on the subject, so 
far as it goes: but what I complain of is, that it entirely overlooks 
both the prophetical, and kingly offices of Christ, the belief of 
which is essential to saving faith. The Doctor's views seem to be 
wholly restricted to what the Son of God has effected as our High 
priest, in laying down His life, or shedding His blood for the 
redemption of a lost world. But this is taking a contracted view 
even of His priesthood ; there is nothing said of His entrance 
within the veil, into the heavenly sanctuary, with His one-offering, 
there to present it before the mercy-seat, and plead it in behalf of 
all His people — nor yet of His sitting down at the right hand of 
the Majesty on High, to officiate as their advocate and intercessor, 
and carry on the purposes of His love. If we look to the narrative 
in Acts XV!. 30, 32, we shall find that the Apostles spake unto the 
jailor the word of the Lord, as well as to all that were in His 
house." They declared who Jesus was, viz. the Christ, the Son of 
God — what He had done for the salvation of sinners — and the 
blessings He bestows on all who really believe in Him, viz. the 
remission of sins, the adoption of children, the gift of the Spirit of 
truth, holiness, and consolation ; the resurrection of the body, and 
eternal life. See their Sermons, Acts ii. ch. x. ch. xiii. This is 
what they called the word of the Lord, and this he was required to 
believe. But 2nd, Another great defect in Dr. Clarke's Discourse 
is to be found in his total omission of the effects of the jailor's faith. 
From the whole of his elucidation of this important subject one is 
almost led to consider him in the light of a Solifidian, or the persons 
spoken of by the apostle James, ch. ii, 14, &c. I do not fou^nd 



548 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

this merely upon his leaving out of the doctrine to be believed 
concerning Christ, what relates to His prophetical, and kingly 
offices in the economy of redemption; but what I have a respect 
to more immediately is, his total silence respecting the Christian 
life and warfare — a thing which holds so prominent a station in 
the apostolic writings. For though it be an established truth, that 
ungodly sinners are justified freely by the grace of God, not work- 
ing but helieving the testimony of God concerning the perfection of 
Christ's righteousness, and the divine good pleasure therein ; yet, 
'tis certain that the Apostles made no account of the faith of any 
man, which did not manifest itself by a readiness to obey all things 
whatsoever Christ has commanded, so far as the individual was in- 
structed into his duty, and had the opportunity of performing it. 
How Dr. Clarke could overlook this important subject in a Dis- 
course on the way of Salvation, it is not easy to account for. But 
certain it is, that his statement of the doctrine, would appear to 
cut out " the work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of 
hope in our Lord Jesus Christ," as things which his system had 
little to do with. But the sacred historian takes particular notice 
of the operative tendency of the jailor's faith : He " believed, re- 
joicing in God with all his house," ver. 34. Nor was this a singular 
case ; joy and peace were inseparable concomitants on the faith of 
the Gospel at the beginning, and must be so still, wherever it is un- 
feigned and genuine, see Acts ii. 41. ch. viii. 8, 39. ch. xiii. 48. 
1 Thess. i. 5. Rom. v. 1, 2. The jailor's faith wrought by love to 
Christ, who had first loved him, and this was expressed in acts of 
gratitude and affection towards His apostles for the Saviour's sake. 

He took them out of prison — washed their stripes the same hour 
of the night — brought them into his house and set meat before 
them," ver. 30, 33, 34. But he did not stop there— -"He was 
baptized, he and all his straightway," ver. 33. This was invariably 
the case with all who received the Gospel at the beginning, and 
ought to be so still. He did not despise it as a matter of indif- 
ference, but viewed it as stamped with Christ's authority, and gladly 
submitted to it, receiving it immediately as a pledge of pardon, a 
sign or token of the remission of his sins through faith in Christ's 
blood. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S 



549 



But I desist, perhaps I ought to apologize for the prolixity of 
these remarks, which I should not have indulged in, had the 
learned Doctor not presented himself before the public with such 
ostentatious pretensions — challenging competition and almost defy- 
ing the armies of Israel. 

The Travellers Prayer ; a Discourse on the Third Collect for 
Grace, In the Morning Service of the Liturgy of the Church of 
England. Third Edition, 1830. 

It was one of the numerous foibles in the character of Dr. Clarke, to 
be every now and then paying his court to the Clergy of the Church 
of England, and crying up " our excellent Church," as by law es- 
tablished. There was a little policy in this — it served ad captandum 
vulgmf In the Preface to this "Discourse," he admits it to be "most 
certainly of a singular kind," but he accounts for its production from 
the fact that the remarks were put together while on a journey 
from Liverpool to Hull, in Dec. 1817. Had he taken for his text, 
a short Psalm, or part of a Psalm, such as the hundred and twenty- 
first, and made it the basis of his meditations, instead of selecting 
part of a Popish Liturgy, it might have been quite as well ; but 
every one to their liking. The author of the Pilgrim's Progress has 
had his admirers in abundance, who have preferred expounding his 
dreams to that of the Holy Scriptures. These things are childish, 
and betray a great want of deference to the volume of inspiration. 
See the hundred and nineteenth Psalm throughout ! 

The Sum and Substance of St. Paul's Preaching, exhibited in a 
Discourse on Col. i. 27, 28. Preached in Leridck, June 18, 1826. 
London, 1827. 

The words of the Apostle on which this Discourse is founded are. 
To whom God would make known, what is the riches of the 
glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you 
THE Hope of Glory, whom we preach, warning every man, and 
teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man 
perfect in Christ Jesus." 



550 MEMOIRS OF THE LITE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

The Sermon cotnmeuces with some very just and pertinent ob- 
servations on that master prejudice of the Jewish nation, and by 
which their minds were so fatally blinded, namely, that the bene- 
fits and blessings of the Messiah's intervention should be confined 
to their own nation, to the exclusion of all the Gentile world ; 
though when God called Abraham, their renowned progenitor, to 
the knowledge of himself, and gave him the covenant of circumci- 
sion, he was an uncircumcised Gentile, and though in the very 
terms of the covenant, the IMost High had expressly promised to 
him, that in his seed, all the nations of the earth should he blessed. 
Such was God's eternal purpose: but it was a "mystery" which 
lay hid in his own eternal bosom from the womb of time, till Mes- 
siah appeared, and by his death upon the Cross, broke down the 
middle wall of partition which for nearly two thousand years had 
kept the Jews a distinct and covenanted people from all other na- 
tions. The divine purpose of calling the Gentiles into the Chris- 
tian church, adopting them into the family of heaven, simply by 
faith in Christ Jesus, and without any reference to circumcision or 
the peculiar rites of Judaism, and making them fellow-heirs with 
believing Jews, entitled to equal privileges and immunities, is 
termed the revelation or full disclosure of this mystery, and was an 
honour conferred more particularly on Paul, the great Apostle of 
the Gentiles ; and it is of this that he is treating in his letter to the 
Colossians, in the passage under consideration. 

In illustration of the text. Dr. Clarke proposes to consider the 
subject matter of Paul's preaching, viz. " Christ in you the hope 
of glory." — the manner in which he preached this—" warning and 
teaching every man" — and lastly, what was the end for which he 
thus preached — " that he might present every man perfect in Christ 
Jesus." 

In his manner of handling the first and second heads of his dis- 
course, there is little of originality, or that entitles it to particular 
notice — the remarks are mostly trite and common-place, but such 
as were, no doubt, very suitable and well adapted to the capacities 
of the inhabitants of the Shetland islands, to whom they were ad- 
dressed, and for whose use, chiefly they were printed. There is, 
however, one sentence which I shall take the liberty to extract in 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F A. S. 



551 



this place, as exhibiting the gist of the discourse — the point at 
which the whole aims, namely, the doctrine of sinless perfection. 
Thus the preacher speaks, p. 9. 

"Many talk much, and indeed well, of what Christ has done for 
us : but how little is spoken of what He is to do IN us ! And yet 
all that He has done for us, is in reference to what He is to do IN 
us. He was incarnated, suffered, died, and rose again from the 
dead ; — ascended to heaven, and there appears in the presence of 
God for us. These were all saving, atoning, and mediating acts for 
us ; that He might reconcile us to God ; that He might blot out 
our sin ; that he might purge our consciences from dead works ; 
that he might bind the strong man armed — take away the armouf 
in which he trusted, wash the polluted heart, destroy every foul 
and abominable desire, all tormenting and unholy tempers ; that 
He might make the heart His throne, fill the soul with His light, 
power and life, and, in a word, destroy the works of the Devil. 
These are done in us ; without which we cannot be saved 
unto eternal life : but these acts done in us are consequent on 
the acts done for us; for had He not been incarnated, suffered 
and died in our stead, we could not receive either pardon or holi* 
ness ; and did He not cleanse and purify our hearts, we could not 
enter into the place where all is purity ; for the beatific vision is 
given to them only who are purified from all unrighteousness ; for 
it is written. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 
Nothing is purified by death ; nothing in the grave ; nothing in 
heaven. The living stones of the temple, like those of that in Je- 
rusalem, are hewn, squared, and cut here, in the church militant, 
to prepare them to enter into the composition of the church trium- 
phant. All the work must be done in the soul on earth, that is 
necessary to prepare it for heaven. Of all this, the temple oi' God 
in Jerusalem was a very lively type : — And the house, when it was 
in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thi- 
ther : so that there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron, 
heard in the hou.'ie while it was building, 1 Kings vi. 7. And to this 
St. Peter alludes. Ye also, as lively stones, tos \i6oi ^Stvres, as living 
stones, — instinct with the living Spirit of the living God, — are built 
up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices. 



552 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

acceptable to God, by Christ Jesus, I Pet. ii. 5. Thus did Paul 
preach Christ ; and thus did Christ dwell in and among the people, 
under Paul's preaching." 

But it is under the third head of discourse, that the Doctor en- 
ters more directly into his subject — " a most important subject/' — 
as he terms it, "and what should be minutely and carefully consi- 
dered." He consequently enters upon it by taking a review of 
what man was before he fell. Created in the divine image and 
likeness — an image, as the apostle Paul explains it, consisting in 
** knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness" man fell into a state 
of ignorance, sin, and alienation from God and his ways. But the 
. Messiah came to restore him to the Divine image and likeness — 
and this he does by destroying the power, pardoning the guilt, and 
purifying from the defilement of sin. All this we admit, because it 
is supported by scripture testimony. But observe how the preacher 
proceeds : 

" In reference to this. He has given His gospel the glad tidings of 
salvation by Christ Jesus, and has established on the earth a mi- 
nistry of reconciliation ; and in this ministry, Apostles and apos- 
tolic men, teach and warn every man in all wisdom, that they may 
present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Now, this perfection is 
the restoration of man to the state of holiness from which he fell ; 
by creating him anew in Christ Jesus, and restoring to him that 
image and likeness of God which he has lost ; and this is the perfec- 
tion here mentioned by the Apostle. A higher meaning than this 
it cannot have ; a lower meaning it must not have : — God made 
man in that degree of perfection which was pleasing to His own 
infinite wisdom and goodness. Sin defaced this divine image; Je- 
sus came to restore it. Sin must have no triumph ; and the Re- 
deemer of mankind must have His glory. But if man be not per- 
fectly saved from all sin, sin does triumph, and Satan exult, be- 
cause they have done a mischief that Christ either cannot or will not 
remove. To say He cannot, would be shocking blasphemy against 
the infinite power and dignity of the Great Creator ; to say He 
will not, would be equally such against the infinite benevolence 
and holiness of His nature. All sin, whether in power, guilt or de- 
filement, is the work of the Devil ; and He, Jesus, came to destroy 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



553 



the work of the Devil ; and as all unrighteousness is sin, so His 
blood cleanseth from all sin, because it cleanseth from all unrighteous- 
ness." 

This statement requires to be received with some qualification. 
That the Almighty Redeemer by his death upon the Cross, has 
obtained a grand and glorious victory over all His and His people's 
enemies, sin, death, and hell, is a glorious truth, of which we have 
abundant evidence in the word of God : but that the believer reaps 
the full benefit of all this while in this mortal state, is quite a mis- 
take, and contrary to the general tenor of the holy scripture. The 
gospel is doubtless the ministry of reconciliation; through believing 
what it testifies concerning Christ and his finished work, sinners 
are regenerated, or born again, quickened from a death in tres- 
passes and sins, and made alive to God. It gives them the know- 
ledge of the true God and Jesus Christ, his beloved Son, and this 
is the beginning of eternal life, John xvii. 3. According to Dr. 
Clarke's hypothesis, such a change takes place in regeneration, 
that some who are partakers of it, have the divine image and like- 
ness at once so stamped upon the mind or heart, as makes them 
perfect in the knowledge of God, frees them fully and at once from 
the remainder of indwelling sin, and perfects them in holiness. 
But I cannot conceive this to be the doctrine of Christ and his 
Apostles ; on the contrary they teach us that the Christian life is 
a progressive thing — that it is a growth in knowledge, faith, love, 
and sanctification, answerable to what takes place in the natural 
life. Hence they exhort believers, 2iS"new born 6a6e5, to desire 
the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby," 1 Pet. 
ii. 2. Hence the different stages of the Christian life are denoted 
by the terms babes, young men, and fathers, 1 John, ii. Some 
are weak in the faith, others strong, while all are renewed and en- 
lightened but in part, 1 Cor. xiii. 9—12. The faith of the Gospel 
dwelling in the mind, and working by love, is the new creature. 
Gal. V. 6. nourished up by means of the word of truth, and the 
ordinances of the Gospel, unto eternal life. The Apostle Paul 
compares the Christian life to a race, and he sets before us his 
/ own example in the manner of running it. " Not as though I had 
already attained, either were already pej-fect : but I follow after, if 

4b 



55i MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND ^VRIT^^GS, 

that I may apprehend that for which I am also apprehended of 
Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended ; 
but this one thing I do ; forgetting those things which are behind, 
and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press to- 
ward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ 
Jesus," Phil. iii. 12, 13. It is not easy to reconcile this kind of 
language with Dr. Clarke's notion of a state of perfection in know- 
ledge and holiness; yet it is a strain of doctrine which runs through 
all the apostolic writings. 

" Many stagger," says Dr. Clarke, " at the term perfection, in 
Christianity ; because they think that what is implied in it, is in- 
consistent with a state of probation, and savours of pride and pre- 
sumption ; but we must take good heed how we stagger at any 
word of God, and much more, how we deny or fritter away the 
meaning of any of his sayings, lest he reprove us, and we be found 
liars before him," p. 19. 

To the justness of this remark I heartily subscribe ; but i demur 
to Dr. Clarke's doctrine of perfection, because I think it is founded 
upon a mistaken view of the meaning of the term in those passages 
of the New Testament where it occurs. For instance, he quotes 
Matt. v. 48. " Be ye, therefore, perfect as your Father who is in 
lieaven is perfect.'' If the reader turn to the parallel place in Luke 
vi. 36, he will find the perfection there spoken of thus explained ; 

Be ye therefore merciful, even as your Father which is in heaven 
is merciful." A second text to which he refers us for proof of his 
sentiment is, 2 Cor. xiii. 11. "Finally my brethren, farewell, be 
'perfect, &c." Here the Doctor very properly remarks, that the 
Greek word KaTaph^a, which is translated " be perfect," is used to 
denote the restoring of a dislocated member to its proper place in 
the body, so as that the latter should perform all the animal func- 
tions aright. Now had he only kept in view that the apostle was 
writing to a Christian church, remarkable above all others of 
which we read, for their strifes, and divisions, and disorderly pro- 
ceedings, arising from the different members not walking orderly 
and keeping their proper place in the body, he would at once have 
seen the absurdity of adducing this text as a proof of his doctrine 
of sinless perfection ! The very same Greek term is used by the 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



555 



apostle in 1 Cor. i. 10, where it is translated, " perfectly joined toge- 
ther" in the same mind, and in the same judgment. What I ask, 
has this to do with sinless perfection ? We have another remark- 
able instance of the use of the same Greek word, in Eph. iy. 12. 
The reader will find that the apostle has been treating of Christ's 
ascension into heaven, and his being invested with all fulness as 
head of his body, the church, the consequence of which was his 
bestowing pastors and teachers upon his churches, " for Xh^ perfect- 
ing of the saints, &c." On which Dr. Macknight thus writes, 
Karapri^ctf, properly signifies to place the parts of any machine, or 
body in their proper order, and to unite them in such a manner as 
to render the machine or body complete. Hence it is used to de- 
note the reducing of a disjointed member to its due place. In the 
metaphorical sense it signifies the fitting of a person, by proper 
instruction, for discharging any office or duty." Here then the 
-perfection spoken of, consists in bringing the saints into joint, or 
organizing them as a church, so as that each may fill up the place 
or station allotted him in the body by the glorified head of the 
church ; and this will be found its general acceptation in the apos- 
tolic writings ; but never is it used to teach the doctrine of perfec- 
tion, in the sense pleaded for by Dr. Clarke in this sermon. In 
truth the doctrine of sinless i>erfection is an awful delusion in those 
who imagine themselves to have attained it. No man that is not 
blind«d to the spirituality of that law which we are all under, and 
which requires supreme, perfect, unabated love to God and man — a 
law that extends to the very thoughts of the heart, as well as to the 
actions of the life, can be insensible of his vast defects, and there- 
fore ready to say with a prophet of old, "Enter not into judgment 
with thy servant, O Lord, for in thy sight shall no flesh living be 
justified." And again, " I have seen an end of all perfection — but 
thy commandment is exceeding broad." Or with another, " If I 
say I am perfect, it shall prove me perverse." — " I have heard of 
thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee ; 
wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes." Undoubt- 
edly that man must be self-deceived who imagines himself at any 
timo without sin, for in many things we all offend, and come 
short of the glory of God." There is not a just man upon the 



556 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

earth that liveth and siiineth not." As I have remarked in a pre- 
ceding section, were it possible for a believer to attain to that state 
of perfection for which Dr. Clarke pleads, such a person would 
have no need to adopt daily the language of the Lord's prayer — 
'* forgive us our sins," nor would he need to come daily to the 
throne of grace, confessing his sin, and " asking mercy to pardon,'' 
through the atonement. In fine, though it be an undisputed truth 
that the Gospel or Grace of God which bringeth salvation, teaches 
all who believe it to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live 
righteously, soberly, and godly, in this present world — to mortify 
the flesh with its aflfections and lusts, and to perfect holiness in the 
fear of God, yet the scriptures always suppose imperfection to at- 
tend the best services of the highest saints on earth. Accordingly 
provision is made in the economy of redemption, for that continual 
cleansing which they need, in order to their enjoying peace of con- 
science and fellowship with a holy God. The blood of Christ is a 
fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, and they are encouraged 
to come boldly to a throne of grace that they may obtain mercy 
to pardon, and grace to help them in time of need. The saints are 
represented as mourning over their daily short comings, and groan- 
ing for deliverance from a body of sin and death, and the language 
of their hearts is " / shall he satisjied when I awake in thy likeness** 
But if under the vain imagination that we have attained to per- 
fection and are walking in the light, " we say we have no sin, we 
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us," 1 John 1. 8. In such 
case we are ignorant of ourselves, and under the grossest delusion 
of pride and self righteousness — we cannot be walking in the light, 
or have fellowship with God, confessing our sins, nor can we have 
any proper estimation of the atonement and intercession of Christ, 
and so " the truth is not in us." In a word, to plead for a state of 
sinless perfection is to make God a liar, who has declared that 
there is not a just man upon the earth that liveth and sinneth not," 
Eccles. vii. 20 ; so that whatever we may pretend in maintaining 
such a sentiment, we give no credit to what God testifies in his 
word either as to our personal guilt, or the way of salvation by 
Christ Jesus. This is my decided judgment of Dr. Clarke's favo- 
rite sentiment of the attainableness of sinless perfection. I am not. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D,, F. A. S. 557 



however, called to write a refutation of his Sermon, and content 
myself with offering these few cursory remarks in order to put the 
reader upon his guard against what I must ever consider an un- 
scriptural and dangerous doctrine. 

The Origin and End of Civil Government : a Lecture founded on 
Romans xiii. 1. * London, 1822. 

An Advertisement prefixed to this pamphlet informs us that the 
liecture was delivered to a select academy of young gentlemen, 
some of whom were intended for the church, some for the bar, and 
some for the army ; and that it was published in compliance with 
their solicitation. Though founded on a text of Scripture, it is 
neither to be considered in the light of a sermon, nor the lecturer 
in that of a preacher. Though of a political caste, it meddles not 
with party politics ; but is designed to exhibit just views of the ori- 
gin and end of civil government. In fact it is confined in a great 
measure to a definition of terms, and a few leading principles in 
the science of government. Such as, I. the meaning of the word 
power, in Rom. xiii. 1. and this is ascertained by an inquiry into 
the import of the Greek word e^vcriav, wherever it is found to occur 
in other texts of scripture, and these are reduced to five primary 
significations, viz. physical force — liberty of acting — the sove- 
reign right and authoi^y which God possesses to reveal or not 
reveal any secrets of His own counsels — also that Divine authority 
by which he invests some men with wisdom and understanding to 
declare his will — and lastly, all civil power, or the right to govern 
men, as that with which kings and magistrates are invested. From 
each of these definitions, various inferences are deduced in illus- 
tration of the point, that " there is no power but from God." 

Next comes under consideration, " the Origin and End of Civil 
Institutions :" and these are said to take their rise from the dege- 
neracy of fallen man, whose evil passions and corrupt appetites 
require restraint. Anarchy would be the inevitable consequence 
of man's unbridled powers — confusion and rapine would follow in 



* Misprinted in the title page, Rom. iU. 1. 



5.58 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

its train — misery, desolation, and death would bring up the rear; 
for population would be gradually thinned — the wild beasts of the 
forest would multiply without controul, and the last human anar- 
chist would either be a meal for oneof the lawless tenants of the wood, 
or sink upon the earth, none remaining to perform the last sad ce- 
remony to a fallen brother. This most infallibly would be the 
case, were it not for civil government; and this government never 
could exist, were it not of God. And though in this ordinance of 
the most high, man is frequently permitted to mingle his folly, his 
pride, his ambition, and the various workings of his base passions, 
with the administration of public affairs, yet God so counterworks 
these by his superincumbent, energetic, and especial providence, 
that the general blessings of civil government are preserved in all 
states; and the anomalies which result from the desperate wicked- 
ness of man, become the sword in the hand of his insulted justice 
for the chastisement of the reclaimable, and the destruction of those 
who have filled up the measure of their iniquity. 

The sixth Section treats of the different forms of civil govern- 
ment which have obtained in the world ; and furnishes a gramma- 
tical definition of their names. We have here, according to custom, 
no little parade of learning. The etymology of the terms Patriar- 
chal —Theocracy — Monarchy — Autocracy — Gynseocracy — Despo- 
tism — Tyranny — King — Aristocracy — Democracy — Anarchy are 
given from the Greek, Saxon, or other language, and thus con- 
cludes. " Monarchy (absolute) keeps especially in view the pre- 
rogatives and glory of the crown, independently of all other consi- 
derations. Aristocracy keeps in view the honour and indepen- 
dence of the nobility, being often regardless of the people. Demo- 
cracy labours to bring all to a level, and keep it there ; and fre- 
quently destroys emulation, because through its jealousy of power 
and influence, it, in effect discountenances profound knowledge and 
high achievement. Neither of these forms, simply considered, is much 
to be preferred. The British government though called a monarchy y 
differs from them all, and yet embraces them all. It is monarchicaly 
and it is not. It is aristocratical, and it is not. It is democratical, and 
is not. It consists of the three estates. It is monarchical, because it ac- 
kno wedges a Kingd>,% the supreme head : it is aristocratical in its ho use 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



559 



of Lords, where the nobies possess a legislative capacity ; it is de- 
mocratical in its House of Commons, where representatives chosen 
by the people possess the same power. These three estates are per- 
fectly mixed by the Constitution ; they counterbalance each other, 
each having an equal legislative authority ; and this government 
possesses in itself all the excellencies of the three forms. It can 
only become corrupt when any of the three estates preponderates 
over the rest. In its nature and regular operation it secures the 
prerogative of the monarch ; it preserves the honour and property 
of the nobility ; it respects and secures the rights of the people ; it 
is, in a word, a limited monarchy, a popular aristocracy, and en- 
nobled democracy. God grant it permanence ! Amen." 

I take leave of this amusing pamphlet by submitting to the rea- 
der one extract more as demonstrative of Dr. Clarke's loyalty and 
attachment to the constitution of his country. The tropes and fi- 
gures that dance throughout the whole, in all the mazes of meta- 
phorical confusion, may be taken as a proof that the Doctor could 
at times become highly poetical even when inditing humble prose. 

" It is an awful thing to endanger and disturb the public peace ; 
hence all good subjects, and men who fear God, should avoid every 
thing that leads to popular disaffection. If those who have the 
physical power get wrong, and swallow the bit of constitutional au- 
thority, they are a mighty sweeping wind that overthrows all things ; 
or an overwhelming flood, by which themselves and their property 
must be swallowed up in the vortex which is formed by their own 
resistless stream. A neighbour may be a bad or oppressive man ; 
the cognizance of his conduct belongs to the state or the civil magis- 
trate. Do not encourage those who meditate his overthrow : fire 
has no eyes ; and the flame which consumes his dwelling will most 
likely reduce your own to ruins. — Of all the civil constitutions un- 
der heaven [query, was the Doctor acquainted with them all ?] the 
British is demonstrably the best. It has been long tried and stood 
the rudest tests. The lapse of ages tends only to invigorate and ren- 
der it more effective It is, through its excellence, under God, that 
an inconsiderable island has acquired the resources, energy, and 
strength of the mightiest Continental empire. It is the object of 
God's most peculiar care j because it is most like his own administra- 



560 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

I'ton ! It is an honour to be born under it ; a blessing to live undef 
it ; and a glory to defend and support it. It is like that mighty 
tree, described by the prophet, widely diffused in its roots, and vast 
in its stem : — its branches are spread over all the earth, and under 
them fowl of every wing find shelter. It is the envy of the nations 
of the world, and should be the boast of its own sons. God alone 
can overthrow it : but He will not destroy the work of His own 
hands. It is the nursery of every thing pure in religion : sound in 
policy ; good in law; wise in counsel ; deep in learning ; and sub- 
lime in science ! and,let its enemies know it, resistless in might 1 Bri- 
tons, value your privileges, guard your constitution, and protect 
your King : — your constitution and your monarchy are inseparable — 
they stand or fall together : and public happiness flourishes or fades 
with them." 

Discourses on various Subjects relative to the Being and Attributes oj 
God and his Works in Creation, Providence, and Grace. Vol. i. 

p.p. 400, London, 1828. Vol. ii. p.p. 404, London, 1829 

Vol. iii. p.p. 408, London, 1830. 

It is a very singular account which is given us, in an Advertise- 
ment prefixed to the first volume of these Discourses, of the occa- 
sion of their publication, and some persons may be disposed to infer 
from it, that, from the authors own shewing, it had been better they 
had never appeared. They have been evidently written cwrren/e 
calamo, at little expense of thought and reflection, consequently 
with slight regard to the author's reputation, which cannot but suf- 
fer from having his name affixed to such crude and undigested pro- 
ductions as they mostly are. It is said of the late eloquent Robert 
Hall of Bristol, that, so amazingly fastidious was he; so difficult to 
be satisfied with his own performances, that, after preaching any one 
of the few sermons with which he favoured the public, he has been 
known to write and re- write it, at least half a dozen times, before he 
could allow it to go into the printer's hands. But the reader shall 
have Dr. Gregory's account of the matter, which 1 extract from his 
interesting memoir of that extraordinary man. 

** He had formed for himself, as a writer, an ideal standard of 
excellence, which could not be reached ; his perception of btatity 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



561 



\n composition was so delicate and refined, that, in regard to his 
own productions, it engendered perhaps a fastidious taste ; and, 
deep and prevailing as was his humility, he was not insensible to 
the value of a high reputation, and therefore cautiously guarded 
against the risk of diminishing his usefulness among certain cl as- 
ses of readei-s, by consigning any production to the world that had 
not been thoroughly subjected to the labor Ihnas. Hence the ex- 
treme slowness with which he composed for the press : writing, im- 
proving, rejecting the improvement ; seeking another, rejecting it : 
recasting whole sentences and pages ; often recurring precisely to 
the original phraseology ; and still oftener repenting, when it was 
too late, that he had not done so." Such was the difficulty which 
Mr. Hall had to prepare any of his manuscripts for the press, and 
the composition of a single sermon with a view to publication was 
always the work of several months. Would the reader see a con- 
trast to all this ? He has it in Dr. Adam Clarke. He tells his 
readers, in the Preface to these volumes, that during his long minis- 
terial life, he had written but very few sermons, most of which had 
been already published ; but for want of time and health they had 
been permitted to get out of print. He wished to have republished 
those, and to have added a few more which he had prepared for the 
press ; but the Editors [probably his two sons, the printers, whose 
presses were unfortunately standing for w ant of work !] having got 
most of his MSS. without properly consulting him, announced a vo- 
lume of Original Sermons, for which he was not prepared." 

The annunciation, however, hasty and imprudent as it was, must 
be followed up, and of course nothing remained but for the Doctor 
to buckle to, and provide copy for the compositors as fast as it was 
called for 1 Was ever before such a reason publicly assigned for 
ushering into the world a volume of Sermons — and this to be fol- 
lowed by a second and a third ? But let the reader mark how the 
Doctor proceeds: "Many (sermons) were brought to me which 
were said to have been * taken down by short-hand writers but 
when I came to peruse them, I found 1 could make no kind of use 
of them. They were neither in language nor in matter any thing 
to which I could creditably or with a good conscience set my hand, 
lafter wards understood lluit my enunciation though distinct, wag too 

4 c 



MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



rapid to be caught by those Artists, in consequence of which many 
half sentences appeared, and the reasoning was marred, unconnect- 
ed, unfinished, and indeed sometimes contradictory to itself. This 
was the case, particularly with several which had been taken down, 
some years ago, at the instance of some gentkmen, who, believing 
that I was near death, (for I was then in a bad state of health) 
thought they could oblige the public and themselves^ by having my 
last discourses ready by the time I might be interred ! their good 
intentions have been hitherto frustrated — and I think it is well for 
all concerned, and who might have been concerned, that such odds 
and ends never appeared, and this imperfect taking down was nearly 
the same in all ; for, let the Artists be whom they might, I found, 
on examining the fruits of their labours, that they had, to a man, 
given me a strange language, worse by many degrees than my own ; 
that they had often perverted my sense, misrepresented my criti- 
cisms, and confounded my reasoning." 

This extract shows that Dr. Clarke was not wholly insensible to 
posthumous fame ; and it is much to be wished he had carried that 
sentiment further into practice than he did. In that case, instead 
of teeming out the unpremeditated effusions of his mind by whole- 
sale in three Volumes of Sermons, he would have restricted him- 
self to a single volume, consisting of his choicest and most matured 
thoughts, on subjects which he deemed of paramount importance 
to the best interests of mankind, and which volume should have 
been deemed worthy of republication from time to time as necessity 
required. But his parental feelings triumphed over those pruden- 
tial considerations which should have led him to pay due defereice 
to his own character as an author ; and hence three Volumes of 
Sermons in the short space of three years, all of them, with the 
exception of a few reprints, committed to writing on the spur of 
the moment ; but, as might be expected, the generality of them 
are beneath the touch of criticism as literary compositions, and 
none of them sufficiently correct for publication. It is certainly 
true that Dr. Clarke never excelled as a preacher ; and how indeed 
should he, who scarcely ever wrote even an outline of his Sermons, 
delivering tliem with little previous study, or expense of thought. 
His pulpit addresses were, consequently, loose and declamatory 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



563 



harangues, careless in regard to style, and greatly deficient in 
point. Should the reader question the correctness of what haa 
been now said, I would entreat him, for his own satisfaction, to 
select from Dr. Clarke's volumes the most finished discourse he 
can find, and then bring it into competition with any one of the 
late Mr. Richard Watsons, contained in the volume of his Sermons 
recently published (1834), and, if he be not struck with the con- 
trast, he must be dull indeed to whatever relates to composition, or 
style. It has been truly said, that every author lives or dies by 
his own pen. Had Dr. Clarke attended to this maxim he would 
surely have hesitated about the publication of these volumes, con- 
cerning the contents of which he is compelled to say in the preface 
to the first volume : " I wish I had a little more time and health 
to have rewritten them all, and to have filled up those which exist 
nearly in outline," p. vii. Now what is this but a tacit acknow- 
ledgment that none of them were sufficiently perfe^ for publica- 
tion ! He adds: " It is with great diffidence that I permit this 
(first) volume to appear in public. I know it is easy to find faults, 
and it may be peculiarly so to find them here ; yet I hope that these 
weil-meant Discourses will be well received by all the people of 
God." Surely this was hoping too much. 

The Volume comprises Sixteen Discourses, on the following sub- 
jects and texts. I. On the Being and Attributes of God ; text, 
Jerem. x. 11. It occupies nearly forty pages, and supplies the 
reader with the rudiments of the Newtonian System of Astronomy 
— the names of all the planets with their diameters, and measured 
distances from the sun, and also from our earth, in English miles ; 
also a dissertation on the principle or law of Gravitation — including 
an extract of four pages from Thomas Aquinas s Sum of Theology ! 
besides references to Plato, Locke, Newton, Fergusson, La Place, 
&c. and all this in a Sermon. ! 

II. The worship which God requires trom men ; text, John iv. 34. 
" God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in 
spirit and in truth," From this Sermon the following passage 
therits to be extracted for its good sense, and useful tendency; 
though somewhat beskle the meaning of the text. 

" To worship God, in spirit, must necessarily be opposed to that 



564 MEMOIRS or THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

shameless farrac:o of senseless rites and ceremonies, by -which some 
apostate churches have encumbered and disgraced the church of 
Christ. The Greek and Roman churches, have each contributed 
their mortal share to the contamination of tlie pure worship of 
God. Saints and angels, — in the numerous hosts of which are 
many names of saints never sanctified, and of angels never created 
— have engrossed the affections, while they have distracted the at- 
tention of millions of silly men and women, who, leaving the word 
of God, have taken for divine revelations, the commandments of 
men : and thus have made the word of God of no effect by their 
tradition. There is scarcely a place of worship on the whole con- 
tinent of Europe, where a person who has properly contemplated 
the divine nature and is acquainted with his bible, can witness an 
act of worship worthy the majesty of God ; or any religious acts 
that can be termed a reasonable service. The church of Rome es- 
pecially, in every country where it either prevails or exists, has so 
blended a pretended Christian devotion, with Heathenish and 
Jewish rites and ceremonies: two parts of which are borrowed 
from Pagan Rome, the third from the Jewish ritual, ill understood 
and grossly misrepresented, and the fourth part from other corrup- 
tions of the Christian system. Nor is the Protestant Church yet fully 
freed from a variety of matters in public worship which savour 
little of that simplicity and spirituality which should ever designate 
the worship of that infinitely pure Spirit who cannot be pleased 
with any thing incorporated with His worship that has not been 
prescribed by Himself, and has not a direct tendency to lead the 
heart from earth and sensual things to heaven, and that holiness 
without which none shall see the Lord. The singing, as it is 
practised in several places, and the heathenish accompaniments of 
ORGANS and musical instruments of various sorts, are as con- 
trary to the simplicity of the Gospel, and the spirituality of that 
worship which God requires, as darkness is contrary to light. And 
if these abuses are not corrected, I believe the time is not far 
distant, when singing will cease to be a part of the divine worship. 
It is now, in many places, such as cannot be said to be any part 
of that worship which is in spirit and according to truth. May 
God mend it»" 



OF THC REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 565 

I heartily concur in all this ; but I entreat the reflecting reader 
to test the Church of England by the standard here laid down — 
" our excellent church," as the Doctor is pleased to term it — a 
Church of which he gloried to be a member, and with which, to 
the day of his death, he could freely hold communion ; — let 
him only apply the foregoing strictures to the worship of that 
church, and he will be tempted to exclaim, Happy is the man 
that condemneth not himself in the thing that he alloweth," &c. 

Sermon III. is on the plan of human redempton, and the text is 
Gal. iv. 4 — 7. " But when the fulness of the time was come, God 
sent forth His Son, &c." — a noble subject unquestionably ; but here 
reduced to " a thing of shreds and patches " — yet with a display oi 
learning quite out of place in a Sermon. Nor is this the only 
place, or occasion to which this remark applies; for the nexl 
Discourse in the volume, is one that the Doctor had preached in 
behalf of the Wesley an Missions, at Great Queen-street chapel, 
Lincoln's-inn- fields, London, May 2nd, 1824, and bears for its sub- 
ject " Gods willingness to save all men:" a Discourse founded on 
1 Tim. ii. 3 — 6. in which also there is an unnecessary parade of 
learning, interspersed also with a reference to the Apochryphal 
story of Bel and the Dragon ! In fact, when we take mto account 
the class of persons for whose use these Sermons were composed 
and printed, and by whom the Doctor wished and expected them 
to be read, one finds it no easy task to acquit him of the charge of 
great indiscretion, in interlarding his paragraphs with scraps of 
Latin, Greek, and other foreign languages, wholly unknown to 
ninety-nine out of every hundred. What earthly purpose he could 
expect it to serve besides that of making an ostentatious display of 
his own scholarship, I profess myself totally unable to divine. To 
the simple christian its tendency must be quite revolting ; for who 
would undertake the reading of a Sermon in which he was to be 
stopt and retarded, and have his attention perplexed and diverted, 
by critical remarks from classic authors ? How differently minded 
was the Apostle Paul, though a man of erudition, (Acts xxvi. 24.) 
when he thus wrote to the Corinthian church : " I thank my God, 
I speak with tongues more than ye all : yet, in the church, I had 
rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my ?oic« 



566 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown 
tongue," 1 Cor. xiv. Were it necessary to adduce proofs of what 
I refer to in Dr. Clarke's Sermons, it might be done with ease from 
almost any one of them, but the task is exceedingly ungracious 
and I gladly decline it. The sceptical reader, if he wants a refer- 
ence, may turn to a Sermon in the first volume, on the disease and 
cure of Naaman the Syrian, p. 163, &c. — and if that do not satisfy 
him, I must despair of doing it. Any further strictures, however, 
must be waved, and the reader's attention rather directed to some 
redeeming points in these singular Sermons, and happily a few- 
such art to be found. 

Few readers, we suppose, would expect to find in a Sermon 
of Dr. Clarke's, an apology for the reading of Novels. It is 
tiue that he condemns the general run of works of this class, 
the writers of which he describes as " snivelling and drivelling 
nonsense without end." He says, " they have corrupted the youth, 
and depraved the manners, not only of this, but of almost all the 
countiies of Europe. They are the begetters of vain imagina- 
tions, of extravagant projects, ^md of calamitous issues. Of them, 
tlieir countrj^ may be well ashamed ; and they themselves blush 
at their own works, and the disastrous effects produced by them 
in society. — There are, however, some honourable exceptions. 
There are a £ew writers of this class, whose sole aim was to 
correct the vicious manners of the age, give a proper bias to 
the understanding, and a healthy direction to the feelings of 
thie heart, and who, because it was popular, chose the form oi' 
a novel to convey their salutary instructions to the public. At 
the head of these, for pious and benevolent feeling, stands Henj y 
Brook for good intention, and indefatigable ponderous la- 
bour, Samuel Richardson : f — and for correct conception, mas- 
terly delineation, judicious colouring, and majestic execution, 
Walter Scott. The first Zcac/^v you to God, the fountain of light, 
life, perfection, and goodness. The second co?idi4cts you through 
many direct roads and faii y by-paths to virtue and propriety of 

* Author of the Fool of Qualiiy— but a disciple of Mr. AVesley's. A wri- 
ter not only of Novels, but also of Tragedies and Fairy Tales— E^ditor. 
' t Author of Pamela,— Giarissa Harlow,— and Sir Charles GrrandisBon. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F A. S. 567 



(Conduct in the various relations of life. And the latter carries you 
tlirough nature and facts to the sources whence history should 
originate ; and raises up not only the recollection of past events, 
but places you by inimitable description in the midst of genera- 
tions that have long since ceased to exist, whom, in your presence, 
he causes to transact all the avocations of their respective situations 
in life, and exhibit all the peculiarities of the manners and customs 
of their times, with the whole train of thinking and feeling which 
gave them birth. Such writers as these, shall have, from posterity 
at least, their just meed of praise ; and of the general tenor of their 
works their authors need never be ashamed." 

Now who would not be surprised at meeting with such a para- 
graph as this in a Sermon, entitled, " St. Paul's glorifying, or the 
Gospel of Christ the power of God unto salvation," Rom. i. 16, 17. 
The Apostle gloried in the Cross of Christ, and deprecated the 
idea of glorying in any thing else. " As it regarded Paul," says 
Dr. Clarke, "all is light and clear: we see that he had no cause 
to be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ" (the doctrine of the cross). 
" He had all the consolations of which he speaks ; he was an in- 
spired apostle, and always full of the Holy Ghost and power. But 
the circumstances of Christians in these latter days are in several 
respects different from those of the apostle ; and in reference to 
these the subject should be examined." And it is of these persons 
that Dr. Clarke affirms, " they never need to be ashamed of their 
works." As an individual, I must protest against this decision, 
notwithstanding the high quarter whence it emanates. For, whilst 
I cheerfully concede that the Novels here excepted are less vicious 
in their tendency than thousands that might be specified, I still 
consider them as of a baneful cast; more especially those of 
Richardson, which, from experience I can testify, are strongly cal- 
culated to dissipate the human mind, and unfit it for all serious 
consideration. 'Tis in vain that we look to such a quarter for 
*' the excellent knowledge of Christ" — and we may reasonably ^ 
judge what judgment the apostle Paul would have passed on such 
authors and their works from what he has told us of the estimate 
he himself formed of the doctrine of the cross, Phil. iii. 8, 
Gal. vi. 14. 



568 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

One of the sermons in this first volume, is upon "The different 
methods which God has used to bring men to the knowledge of 
himself," and is founded on the nineteenth Psalm, ver. I — 8. It 
vas preached on the day appointed for making a collection in be- 
half of the Methodist's Missionary Society, and though grievously 
disfigured by Hebrew quotations, and which if delivered from the 
pulpit, must have tended greatly to injure its effect — I with plea- 
sure refer to it for the sake of laying before the reader. Dr. Clarke's 
Instruction to Missionaries, on the method they should adopt in 
communicating to the Heathen the first principles of religious 
knowledge — the knowledge of God and of his redeeming love and 
grace. Thus the Doctor writes : 

•* Were I, as a missionary, now to begin my ministerial labours 
among the stupid Hurons of North America — the Samoeids of the 
Northern Frozen Ocean — the Namaquas of Southern Africa — the 
Esquimaux of Labrador, or Aborigenes of New Holland; — I would 
proceed with them in the very manner that God has given His 
laws and dispensations to the human race. 

" 1. By day, I would call their attention to the mn in the fiiTna- 
ment of heaven ; by night, to the moon, the planets and the stars. 
I would endeavour to tell them what they are, where they are, what 
their use is; and what we may learn from them. In substance, I 
■would thus address them ; — You feel that the sun gives you light 
and warmth by day, and wiien your days are longest, and the sun 
brightest and warmest, then the grass, and the yams and the va- 
rious things on which you feed, grow most plenteously. Whence 
did these things come ? Did they make themselves ? Can any 
thing make itself ? Can a thing begin to work before it has any 
being ? You see this vessel, I turn it upside down. — Is there any 
thing in it ? ' No, there is nothing.' — Could then this nothing, this 
emptiness build that hut Make that rock P — Produce this great 
ireeP You see, you know that it could not. — It has neither 
eges, nor feet, nor hands, nor instruments of any kind — nor is it 
any thing that you can touch, or see, or even think of: for it 
has no being ; it does not exist— it is nothing — consequently it has 
made nothing, and can make nothing. Then, do you think that the 
Bun, the moon, the stars, &.c., have made themselves P — They can 
no npiore make themselves, than the nothing in this vessel, can make 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 569 

your hut, yon rock, or that large tree ! Who made the hut, why 
yourself, for it could not make it itself. Then, who made the sun, 
the moon, the stars, the earth, and all things P For the reason 
already shewn you, they could not make themselves. * We do not 
know who or what made them, nor any thing else :' — ' Do you 
know.?' Yes. It was that Being that we worship — that we jaray 
to — and to whom we sing those hymns, with the sound of which 
you seemed so pleased. — We call Him God. This word in our 
language signifies the Good Being. This Being is so strong, that 
He could take up the whole earth, with all its seas, and rivers, 
and islands. — He could dash them all to pieces, and in the 
same moment, make them as they were before, or make them 
in any other shape, or put them in any other place. He is 
also very wise; — He knows every thing; and can teach you to 
know any thing that mis' do you good. You think that we 
know much more than yo.. ^t is so : and it is so, because we 
know this God, and we pray to Him, and He teaches us : — He 
makes our hearts wise and our heads wise. We see also that He is 
very good ; — He made the sun to give us light and heat, and to 
make our crops grow in the ground ; and He made the moon and 
the stars to give light by night ; and the earth to provide us with 
food. So, from the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the earth, 
and other wonderful things which we see, none of which com/c? make 
themselves, we have first learnt, that strong Being, a wise Being, 
and a good Being, could alone, make all these things : and as we 
see that He made them for our use, and for our advantage, viq then 
know that He must love us ; and we feel from that, that we should 
love Him. Now, if we love Him, we know that we should not do 
any thing that would offend Him. We should not do any thing 
that is had, for that would offend the good Being. We should not 
do any thing that is foolish, ihdX would grieve this wise Being. 
We should not use our strength to hurt one another, to oppress 
each other, to strike, to kill or destroy our friends, our neighbours, 
or any one else, for thus, the strong Being never employs His 
strength j and what strength we have. He gave it to us, for He 
made us : it would grieve Him if we should do wrong to one ano- 
ther. * But where is this strong, wise, and good Being ? We 

4d 



570 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

never saw Him.' We answer. He is every where — He sees eveiy 
thing, because he is every where — He fills all things and places. 
But He has not a body like us — He is a spirit: — now a spirit is 
that which knows, thinks, and works, without using any bodily form. 
* Then, if He have no body, and we cannot see Him, how can we 
know that there is such a Being ?' I answer. Look at that grass, 
what makes it wave P — look at that tree ; what makes its leaves and 
branches shake F — look at the clouds, what makes them move along 
the sky ? ' We tell you, it is the wind that does these things.' 
Well then, can you see the wind? Have you ever seen it ? Have 
you ever heard that any of your forefathers have seen it ? * No.' 
Then you see that something may exist and work which you cannot 
see. Have you not seen that this wind blows down your houses, 
tears up great trees from their roots, raises up the waves of the sea, 
that they appear to touch the clouds ? Yet you have never seen 
it ; but you see from its effects that it can do wonderful things — 
terrible things ? Now, our God made that very wind. He cannot 
be seen, because He is a spint ; — ^it cannot be seen, because it is 
thin air. But though you cannot see the wind, you may feel it; it 
blows upon your bodies, it blows your garments about, it has 
sometimes no doubt blown you off your feet, and its cool breeze 
lias often refreshed you when weary. Thus you know by feeling 
it that it exists. So you might feel our God, though you cannot 
see Him. — Have you ever felt any good desire F Have you felt 
grieved with yourselves when you did some wicked thing P * Yes 
we have.' Well : it was God that gave you that feeling : — and 
were you to pray to Him, suppose thus : — '0 thou strong Being, I 
am weak in my heart, and cannot do the things that are right, be 
thou pleased to give me strength! — O thou wise Being, I am very 
ignorant and very foolish, wilt thou be pleased to give me wisdom, 
that I may know what is right 1 — G thou good Being, I have a bad 
heart, and do many bad things, oh, take away my bad heart, and 
give me a good heart.' Now, I say, this God who is here, for he is 
every where, and hears what I teach you, will hear your prayer, 
and give you to feel that He strengthens you : — He will teach you, 
and you will feel that you grow wise : — He will take away your 
bad heart, and give you to feel that He has given you a good one. — - 
And you will feel His inward working, so powerfully, that you shall 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 571 



be as sure that He exists, and that He loves and works in you, as if 
you could see Him with your eyes, and feel him with your hands. 
And you will be soon able (when I have given yon more instruction 
from a Book that we Christians have, which was given to us by this 
God) to call Him your Father, as your son can call you his 
Father. 

*' ThiK far t could, as a missionary, go with the rudest savages, 
teaching them from the law or hook of nature that there is a Being 
who has made all things ; and tliat He is strong, and wise, and good : 
— that He may be felt, though not seen : — that men should pray to 
Him for j?07;Cer and wisdom, and goodness, and that He will hear 
them, and grant their requests. But this plan of teaching the rude 
and uncultivated, may be almost ewc^Zes^/y varied — every thing around 
us, offering new arguments, and new modes of illustration. 

" 2. Having prepared the minds of my heathen auditory by such 
plain arguments and illustrations, as were necessary to give them 
some notion of a First Cause— to point out to them the Almighty, 
Omniscient, and Infinitely good Being, and the necessity of know- 
ing, loving, and serving Him ; the Second Law, or mode of disco- 
very which God has made of Himself to mankind, should be intro- 
duced : and in such circumstances as those mentioned above, I 
wold introduce this subject after the following manner: 

" I have already shewn you, that the Being which we call God, 
was) before all things — and that the heaven and the earth were made 
by Him : that no-thing, no-being could make itself: and that this 
Being, has made all things by His wisdom power ; and that He 
made them for the wseand good of mankind ; which is a proof that 
Ua loves man,^ and is always disposed to make him wise and good, 
smA happy ;^ and therefore we should love Him, and do nothing that 
inigh^ displease Him. But in order to know Him fully, for our hap- 
piness^ He has given us a Book, that teaches, how He has made 
ail things J. kow He ^ot'ern* them, what He would have us to know ; 
and also gives us an account of what He hates, and we should not 
do ; and of what He hves, and what we should perform. This 
Book teaches us that all men came from one father and mother whom 
this God forincd out of the ground, and made them with very good 
hearts, without any evil thought or bad passion — it tells us also, how 



572 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

man lost his ffood heart, by doin^ what this God told him not to 
do: — and that misery, woe, and death, came in consequence, into 
the world. Now the accounts that we have in this Book, we know 
to be true, for they tell us what we know and feel to be true ; for 
the descriptions that are given, answer exactly to the things them- 
selves—and these things we could not have found out, had we not 
been taught them by this Book ; and no people in the world, that 
have not this Book, know these things — for instance, you do not 
know them, because you have not this Book ; and all the men in 
the world, were in the same state of ignorance, as you are now, 
before God gave this Book. And God, this good Being, pitying 
the state of man, through the great love that He bears to him, 
spoke all the words contained in this Book, in the hearts of men 
which He had made good, that they might receive and remember 
these good things : and He caused them to write them down in a 
Book, that they might copy them into other books, and thus hand 
them down from father to son, as long as that sun shall shine by 
day, and the moon and stars give light by night. — Now, I will 
read to you the account that God gives us in this Book : — how 
He made the hcanem above, and the earth below — how He made 
the sun, the moon, the stars, the trees, the grass, the Jish, the fowls, 
the beasts ; aiid how He made men and women. Now, listen atten- 
tively, and you will hear a most beautiful account — and if any 
thing you hear me read, does not appear sufficiently plain to you, 
when I stop, ask me, and I will explain it fully. — Here, then, I 
would read a part of the first chapter of Genesis, and at successive 
opportunities, the whole : with the account of the temptation and 
fall of man. — I would give also the history of the people to whom 
God originally gave those Scriptures — of the Israelites in their 
origin — in their slavery in Egypt — their Exodus — miraculous sup- 
port in their travels, and their settlement in the Promised Land, 
When all this was done, I would proceed in some such way as 
this: — 'Now, as God loves man (for I would take care to have 
the love of God to man, as the foundation and cause of all His acts 
towards the whole human race), and He saw that he was become 
so very ignorant and wicked, that he bad no proper knowledge of 
good and ecd left ; God tells him in this Book, what he should do. 



or THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



573 



and what he should not do : and that all might easily learn and 
mmember these things. He divides them into ten Commandments, or 
Divine orders, telling each what He should perform and what he 
should leave undone.' Here the Decalogue should come in — 
every precept be explained at large, shewing at the same time, 
the reasonableness, necessity, and usefulness of each part, and 
gf the whole. — Having completed this part of my plan of instruc- 
tion, I would proceed to the account of sacrifices, and endeavour 
to explain their nature, their reference to sin, in order to shew 
what each sin deserved, (viz. death) — and shew that the same 
God who prescribed them, had told the people that they were in- 
sufficient of themselves to take away the guilt of sin : and that 
they were intended to point out a glorious Being, infinitely pure, 
spiritual, and good j who was to come from heaven to earth, and 
become a man, like to one of ourselves, though in that pure and 
spiritual nature, which dwelt in that man, he had infinite power, 
wisdom, and goodness ; and was Himself to become a true sacrifice, 
by dying for the sins of mankind — and that God had revealed this 
great design, many hundreds of years before it took place, to holy 
men who were commanded to write what God had declared on 
this subject, in the same Book : and then, the various promises 
concerning the Advent of Christ, shoxAdi be reac? and explained; 
ariU care should be taken to shew that these prophecies were deli- 
vered several hundreds of years before any such events as were 
foretold in them, had taken place : — I would also shew strongly 
the necessity of such a sacrifice as that promised, 1st. To hlot out 
the sins that were past. 2. To procure grace, or Divine help, by 
which we might live a holy life. 3. To purify the heart and mind 
from all badness or sinfulness ; and thus to prepare the soul for, 
and finally bring it into, an everlasting state of happiness with the 
good God, in the kingdom of heaven. 

" 3. Having added line upon line, and precept upon precept, on 
these subjects, then I would introduce 

" The THIRD Law, or Revelation of God's will to mankind, the 
Gospel dispensation — shew, that, exactly at the time, which the Pro- 
phets referred to, Jesus Christ came into the world, and appeared 
as Man among men — but the wisdom of His words, and His won- 



574? MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

derful miracles, (which should fee carefully detailed,) proved, that, 
in that Man, dwelt an injiniu power and goodness — that according 
to the Prophecies, long before delivered, He permitted Himself to 
be nailed to a cross, on which He expired; and that, in three days, 
He raised up that slain Body from the dead — lived and conversed 
with his friends for many days — and then in the sight of several, 
went up into heaven, having given commandment to His Disciples, 
(persons whom He had before instructed), to go into all the world, 
and preach the good news of what He had done and suffered, to 
every man : — and that all who should hear these things, and be- 
lieve on Him, as thus having lived, suffered, died, risen again, and 
gone up into heaven, to pray and plead for them, should receive 
the forgiveness of all their sins, and that purif cation of heart, pro- 
mised by the Prophets, so that when they should die, their souls, 
should go straight to heaven, a state of indescribable happiness ; 
and that at no great distance of time, even their bodies should be; 
raised from their graves, and never feel sickness, or pain, and never 
die more. And, it is in consequence of His command, that we are 
come so many thousands of miles over great oceans, to preach to 
and teach you, that you may be made happy. 

" I have said that the plan of preaching to the heathen, which 
I here propose, is sanctioned by the manner in which God exhibits 
those works by which He makes His eternal power and godhead 
known to the world. 

" Prophets and Apostles have followed the same plan. — When 
•writing to the heathens in Babylon, Jeremiah not only uses their 
own language, but also this same manner of teaching ; The gods 
that have not made the heavens, and the earth, they shall perish from 
the earth and from under these heavens, Jer. x. 11. 

" See the great Apostle Paul : — when he addresses the Jetvs, he 
quotes the Law and the Prophets, and his appeals to their Scrip- 
tures, are incessant — and out of the law and the prophets, the divine 
authority of which theg alloived, he shows their wickedness in re- 
jecting the Gospel, which Moses and the Prophets foretold. 

" But view him writing to heathens, or preaching to a heathen au- 
dience, and what do you hear ? — the hnest appeals to the Book of 
Nature, to prov€ the being, providence, justice, wisdom, and goodness 



OF THE REV. aDAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 575 

of Him ^ ho made the heavens and the earth. Hear him at Lysira, 
where all were heathens and idolaters, and took him and his com- 
panions for gods, and were about to offer them sacrifices. Acts xiv. 
15 — 27. ' Sirs, why do ye these things ? We also are men of like 
passions (feelings and constitution) with you, and preach unto you 
that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which 
made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things that are there- 
in :' — ' He hath not left Himself without witness, in that He did 
good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling 
our hearts with food and gladness.' No appeal to Scripture here, 
and why, because they neither acknowledged it, nor knew any 
thing of it. 

" Hear him preaching at the Areopagus, to the Athenian magis- 
trates : — he does not begin to announce Christ and redemption 
through His Blood ; — ^if he had done so, he must have lost his 
labour — they did not believe in the Supreme God — for they did 
not know Him : to know the true God, is the Arst principle of true 
religion ; — taking advantage of the inscription on one of their 
altars. To the Unknoivn God; he commences with, * Him whom 
ye ignorantly worship, declare I unto you. God that made the 
world, and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and 
earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands ; neither is wor- 
shipped with men's hands, as though He needed any thing, seeing 
He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things ; and hath made 
of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the 
earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the 
bounds of their habitation ; that they should seek the Lord, if 
haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not 
far from every one of us : for in Him we Jive, and move, and have 
our being ; as certain also of your own poets have said. For we 
are also His qffspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of 
God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or 
silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device, &c.' Acts xvii. 
22 — 29. To such a people, Moses and the Prophets would have 
had no authority ; but a Greek poet of their own, Aratus, had ; 
and, therefore, he quotes hijn, and argues on the quotation — We are 
His of spring — If so, t/ien the Godliead is not like unto goldj silver, 
ftoue, ^c. 



576 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

" And so nicely does this chief Apostle discriminate, that when 
he addresses Felix, half a heatheriy and half a Jew, he does not 
dwell on either system, but refers to both. — The resurrection of the 
dead, was generally credited among the Jews, all believing it, ex- 
cept the Sadducees. This he mentions in his defence before Felix : 
and then, as was the practice of the Ethic philosophers, he ' rea- 
soned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come,* Acts 
xxiv. 21 — 25, referring to both systems, as far as they were likely to 
bear on the understanding and conscience of this demi -heathen. 
They who do not follow such a plan in preaching to the heathen, 
but rush in upon them with the mysteries of Christianity, before 
they are convinced that there is a God who has created all things, 
though they thus cast their bread upon the waters, are not likely to 
find it, even after many days. " 

This is excellent advice to Missionaries ; nothing can be more 
just, or more important to persons sent forth to evangelize Pagan 
lands ; and were the plan thus recommended, carried out properly, 
the happiest effects might be expected to result. 

Interspersed throughout these volumes of Sermons, we have oc- 
casional descants on some abstruse and philosophic topics, particu- 
larly on the Being, perfections, and attributes of God, and on His 
wonderful works in creation and providence. Although these are 
sometimes strangely out of place, they serve nevertheless to show 
that Dr. Clarke had bestowed no slight attention on these subjects, 
and to many readers they will be regarded as the most interesting 
and instructive parts of his volumes. Thus, for instance in the 
second volume, we have a Discourse on the Being and Providence 
of God, founded on Heb. xi. 6. " He that cometh to God must 
believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of all them that 
diligently seek Him." Who, now, in such a place, would expect 
to meet with an elaborate disquisition on the phenomena ol' the 
heavenly bodies ? The following, however, is an extract. 

*' Astronomical phenomena, very difficult to be accounted for 
upon natural principles, and strong evidences of the being and 
continual agency of God. 

PHENOMENON I. 

The motion of a planet in an elliptic orbit is truly wonderful. 



OF THE REV, ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F ^. S. 577 

and incapable of a physical demonstration in all its particulars. 
From its aphelion, or greatest distance from the sun, or body round 
which it revolves, to its perihelion or least distance, its motion is 
continually accelerated : and from its perihelion to its aphelion as 
constantly retarded. From what source has the planet derived 
that power which it opposes to the solar attraction, in such a man- 
ner that when passing from aphelion to perihelion, by a continued 
acceleration, it is prevented from making a nearer approach to the 
sun ? And, on the other hand, what influence prevents the planet, 
after it has passed, by a continued retardation, from perihelion to 
aphelion, from goings altogether out of the solar attraction, and 
causes it to return again to perihelion ? Sir Isaac Newton has fully 
answered these questions in his demonstration that this phenomenon 
is a necessary result of the laws of gravity and projectile forces. 
It is worthy of observation, that to account for a planet's moving in 
an elliptical orbit, little differing from a circle, and having the sun 
in the lower focus, the projectile force of the planet, or the power 
by which the projected body tends to move forward in a straight 
line, is shown to be nearly sufficient to counterbalance the planet's 
gravitating power, or, which is the same thing, the attraction 
of the central body : — for, the demonstration, the particulars of 
which are too complicated to be here detailed, puts us in pos- 
session of the following facts. If a planet be projected in a di- 
rection exactly perpendicular to the line joining it and the central 
body, with a velocity equal to what it would acquire by falling half 
way to the centre by attraction alone, it will describe a circle round 
the central body. If the velocity of projection be greater than this 
but not equal to what the planet would acquire in falling to the 
centre, it will move in an elliptical orbit more or less eccentric ac- 
cording to the greater or less degree of projectile force. If the ve- 
locity of projection, be equal to that which the planet would ac- 
quire in falling to the central body, it will move in a parabola, if 
greater than this, in a hyperbola. Now it cannot be demonstrated 
upon physical principles, that a planet should have a certain pro- 
jectile force, and no other ; or, which is the same, that it should be 
projected with a given velocity and direction : for, it is a law of 
nature, ably demonstrated by Newton in his Princijna, that all bo 

0 E 



^78 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE. MINISTRY^ AND WRITINGS, 

(lies liave such an indifference to rest or motion, that, if once at rest, 
they must remain eternally so, unless acted upon by some power 
sufficient to move them ; and thc.t a body once put in motion will 
proceed of itself ever after in a straight line, if not diverted out of 
this rectilinear course by some influence. Every planetary body 
has a certain projectile force ; therefore, some previously existing 
cause must have communicated it. The planets have not only a 
projectile force, but this power is at the same time nearly a counter- 
balance to its gravitation, or the attraction of the central body ; so 
that by virtue of these powers, thus harmoniously united, the pla- 
nets perform their revolutions in orbits nearly circular, with the 
greast regularity. It hence follows, that the cause which has ori- 
ginally projected the planets with a given velocity and direction so 
as nearly to produce an equilibrium in the centrifugal and centri- 
petal powers is infinitely intelligent: therefore, this cause must 
be God. 

Phgenomenon II. 
" The double motion of a primary planet, viz. its annual revolu- 
tion, and diurnal rotation, is one of the greatest wonders the science 
of astronomy presents to our view. — The laws which regulate the 
periods of the latter of these motions are so completely hidden from 
man, notwithstanding his great extension of philosophical research, 
that the times which the planets employ in their rotations can only 
be determined by observation. The first of these motions results 
from projection and gravitation, and depends, on the velocity and 
direction originally impressed on the planet : the second results 
from a force acting on the planet in a line not passing through the 
centre of gravity, while an opposite force is applied at the centre 
to prevent a change in the progressive motion. The period of ro- 
tation will depend on this oblique force, and be unvaried while unin- 
fluenced by other causes, or by forces acting towards the same parts 
on both sides the centre. Hence the rotation of the planets will 
be uniform ; but their existence and periods can be known only by 
observations. The astonishing accuracy with which celestial obser- 
vations have been conducted within the last one hundred years, has 
enabled the astronomers to demonstrate that the neighbouring pla- 
nets very sensibly affect the figure of the earth's orbit, and conse- 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



579 



quently its motion in its orbit. Of this, every one may be con- 
vinced who examines the calculus employed in ascertaining, for 
any particular point of time, the sun's place in the heavens : or, 
which is the same thing, the point of the earth's orbit which is ex- 
actly opposed to the place of the- earth in this orbit. Thus the max- 
imum that the earth is affected by Venus, is nine seconds and seven- 
tenths of a degree : by Mars, six seconds and seven tenths ; and by 
Jupiter, eight seconds, two thirds, &c. &c. But no astronomer, 
since the foundation of the world, has been able to demonstrate 
that the earth's motion in the heavens is at all accelerated or re- 
tarded by the diurnal rotation ; or, on the other hand, that the earth's 
motion on its axis experiences the least irregularity from the an- 
nual revolution. How wonderful is this contrivance ? And what 
incaculable benefits result from it ! The uninterrupted and equable 
diurnal rotation of the earth gives us day and night in their suc- 
cession, and the annual revolution causes all the varied scenery of 
the year. If one motion inteifered with the other, the return of day 
and night would be irregular ; and the change of the season attend- 
ed with uncertainty to the husbandman. These two motions are, 
therefore, harmoniously impressed upon the earth, that the gracious 
promise of the great Creator might be fulfilled : ' While the earth 
remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer 
and winter, and day and night shall not cease.' The double mo- 
tion of a secondary planet is still more singular than that of its 
primary : for, (taking the moon for an example), besides its par- 
ticular revolution round the earth, which is performed in twenty- 
seven days, seven hours, forty-three minutes, four seconds and a half 
it is carried round the sun with the earth once every year. Of all 
the planetary motions, with which we have a tolerable acquaintance, 
that of the moon is most intricate. Upwards of twenty equations 
are necessary, in the great majority of cases, to reduce her mean to 
her true place. They depend on the different distances of the earth 
from the sun in its annual revolution, the position of the lunar 
nodes, the moon's place in her orbit, and various other causes, in- 
cluding the effects of the planetary attractions. Who can form 
an adequate conception of that influence of the earth which thus 
Iraws the moon with it round the sun, precisely in the same man- 



580 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY. AND WRITINGS, 

ner as if it were a loose or detatched part of the earth's surface, 
notwithstanding the intervening distance of about two hundred and 
forty thousand miles; and at the same time leaves undisturbed the 
moon's proper motion round the earth ? And what beneficent pur- 
poses are subserved by this harmony ! In consequence of it we have 
the periodical returns of new and full moon ; and the ebbing and 
flowing of the sea, which depend on the various lunar phases, with 
respect to the sun and earth — these always succeed each other with 
a regularity necessarily equal to that of the causes which produce 
them. These motions of rotation and of a scondary planet about 
its primary clearly demonstrate the existence of a Supreme Intelli- 
gent Cause who first gave them birth. 

PH(EN0MEN0N III. 

" The impression of an inconceivably rapid motion upon the 
earth, without disturbing, in the smallest degree, any thing upon its 
surface, or in the atmosphere which surrounds it ; is another in- 
stance of the infinite wisdom of God. That principle, with which 
God has endued the celestial bodies, in order to accomplish this end 
is called gravity or attraction. The existence of this influence is 
easily demonstrable from the curious law which pervades all the bo- 
dies in the solar system, and probably every other body in the whole 
compass of space. — From this law it is evident, to every one that 
deeply considers this subject, that the planets revolve in orbits by 
an influence emanating from the sun ; for, the nearer a planet is 
to the sun, the swifter is its motion in its orbit, and vice versa. The 
singular phoenomenon of a planet's describing equal areas in equal 
times, results from the inability of bodies to change their state, com- 
bined with a force directed to the centre round which the areas are 
described. Thus, if a planet describe in twenty-four hours any arc 
of its orbit, and the area contained within that arc and two straight 
lines drawm from its extremities and meeting in the sun, be ascer- 
tained ; it will be precisely equal to what the planet will describe 
in any other twenty-four hours, the greater or less quantity of the 
arc described being continually compensated by the less or greater 
extent of the straight lines including the respective areas. We al- 
so find that, by virtue of these laws, the motion of a planet in its 
orbit is not decreased in arithmetical proportion to the increase of 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 581 



the distance from the central body : for the hourly orbitical motion 
of the Georgium Sidiis, for example, is only five times slower than 
that of the earth, though its distance from the sun is full nineteen 
times greater. 

" Every man may convince himself of the existence of gravity^ 
by observing the phcenomena attending falling bodies. Why is it 
that the velocity of a falling body is continually accelerated till it 
arrives on the eerth ? We answer, that the earth continually attracts 
it ; consequently, its velocity must be continually increasing as it 
falls. It is also observable, that the nature of the influence on 
falling bodies is precisely the same with that which retains the 
planets in their orbits. By numerous experiments it is found, that 
if the falling body descend towards the earth sixteen feet in the first 
second of time, it will fall through three times this space, or forty- 
eight feet in the next second : five times this space, or eighty feet 
in the third second : seven times this space, or one hundred and 
twelve feet in the fourth second : nine times this space, or one hun- 
dred and forty-four feet in the fiftlv^econd, &c. Hence the spaces 
fallen through, are as the squares of the times of falling : i. e. in 
the first second the body falls sixteen feet; in the next second 
forty-eight feet ; consequently, the body falls as many feet in the 
two first seconds as is equal to the sum of those two numbers, viz. 
sixty-four, which is sixteen multiplied by four, the square of two, 
the number of seconds it took up in falling through the first sixty- 
four feet. 

" The above is but a very brief account of the influence of this 
wonderful principle, which is universally difl"used through nature ; 
and capable of attracting every particle of matter, under all its pos- 
sible modifications, and of imparting to each substance, from the 
lightest gas to the most ponderous metal, that property which con- 
stitutes one body specifically heavier or lighter than another. To 
detail all the benefits which result from it, would be almost to give 
a history of the whole material creation. But it may be asked^ 
What is gravity ? To the solution of this question, natural philo- 
sophy is unable to lead us. Suflice it to say, that all we know of 
gravity is, its mode ol' o])ei ation, and that is, like its Great Creator, 



5H2 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



an all pervading and continued energy. That it is, and not in whai 
it consists, is capable of demonstration." 

" Of all the departments of natural philosophy," says a late wri- 
ter,* " that of physical astronomy, at the first sight, would seem 
more than any other to be placed beyond the reach of our faculties ; 
but it is well known that there is none in which we have advanced 
with so much success, and demonstrative certainty ; for this we are 
indebted to our illustrious countryman, Newton. From the exposi- 
tion of the laws of one single agent, the force of gravitation, all the 
movements of the solar system are developed ; as well those of 
rotation, as those which relate to their periodical revolutions, and 
even the anomalies, and apparent irregularities, are under the domi- 
nion and controul of this power. Now, since we are satisfied of the 
existence of the principle of gravitation, and admit that it affects 
every atom of matter, we ought to examine the actions of bodies on 
each other, at minute distances, with the view of finding what part 
of these actions is attributable to gravitation. Philosophers seem 
to have agreed to discard the operation of this force, except at sen- 
sible distances ; but if gravitation be not the sole agent, it must 
needs, at these exceedingly small distances, act a very distinguished 
and important part, in producing the changes which are constantly 
going on in nature. Do not lose sight of gravitation and by 
pursuing this thread you will be guided through the mazes of a 
most intricate labyrinth, to a situation exceedingly near the seat of 
its activity. Here it will be seen that the whole mass of force pre- 
sents its resistance equally, uniformly, and with immense effect, on 
every side ; consequently this centre has every property of a solid 
substratum, and there is no imaginable use, as far as we can per- 
ceive, for a solid nucleus, which is not answered by this concen- 
trated force ; this, itself forms the solid part of matter. It is not 
here supj)osed that force acts against nothing, but against another 
opposing lorcc : we know nothing oi mutter, hut by the forces which 
it exerts, and whicl) doubtless constitute its nature. Does any one 
ask. What is matter, and what is force ? It may be answered, — 

* See a new Theory of Physics, founded on Gravitation, by T. Exlay 
M. A. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F.A.S. 



583 



Matter is force applied, and exerted in a peculiar way: and reci- 
procal force operating in a certain mode, constitutes matter. Is 
the enquiry pursued, — What ia this force applied and exerted so as 
to constitute matter ? We cannot tell what is its essential nature 
more than this, that it is a power acting against a similar power, 
and may be greater or less than the other, or equal to it, being as 
far as it respects matter, a wonderful act of the Ever-living God, 
who worketh all things according to the counsels of his will. Every 
atom of matter was created or brought into existence by an oper- 
ation of the almighty power of God, and continues to exist by his 
continued act, either immediate or mediate ; for the same power 
which first produced this substance, is requisite to sustain or up- 
hold it in existence. The inconceivable myriads of atoms which 
are contained in bodies, tend to excite astonishment, and present 
before us an inexpressible sublimity. — Here we see the act of cre- 
ation and conservation ; and, when we extend our views to the 
innumerable huge bodies which compose the universe, and to the 
multiplied millions of millions of atoms in each, with the united 
actions of their concentrated forces ; we are prepared to say, that 
power belongeth to God alone. 

" There is no less evidence of supreme wisdom in the structure 
of matter : the law of force, which constitutes its actions, is adapted 
peculiarly to preserve the existence and constant harmony of the 
universe. The same law of force is equally subservient to main- 
tain the beautiful order and motions of systems of worlds, and to 
regulate the various changes and modifications, which bodies and 
atoms are designed to undergo, in their connections and combina- 
tions with each other. The all-powerful hand of the Creator could 
certainly have constituted matter with forces varying by other very 
different laws ; but we can conceive of none which could have so 
completely answered the great ends of creation in the constitution 
of the universe, and the regulations and organizations of its several 
parts. The same wisdom is seen in the variety of the atoms of 
matter and the proportions of each part ; none are in defect, none 
in excess ; and from the nature of their constituent forces, there is 
a constant tendency to preserve the established order of things, 
according to an all-wise and infinite design. We are easily led to 



584 MEMOIRS or THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



perceive, tliat it M-as in the mind of the Creator to form beings 
more elevated in nature than mere matter ; hence. He has super- 
added a principle — viz. that of vegetable life. This, whatever it be, 
is associated with the seed of the plant, and directs the combina- 
tions of common matter, when put into suitable circumstances, 
according to the nature and species of the vegetable which is to be 
unfolded and matured. The principle of animal life is still more 
dignified. This principle is hid in the ovum, as that of the vege- 
table is in the seed. It directs the growth of the animal, as well as 
the peculiarities of its shape and organs, and the developement of 
these reciprocally aids the principle itself, which becomes capable 
of supporting and directing wonderful movements, actions, and in- 
stincts. The result shows that the Omnipotent Creator had pur- 
posed to form a being, who should possess a nature far more 
tj anscendant than that of the mere animal ; one possessing an in- 
telligent mind, capable of surveying His works, and of rising from 
the survey of these to their great author. This did not escape the 
notice of the Roman poet (Ovid) as stated in those well-known 
lines, Me/a?M. lib. i. 1.76, beginning thus: " Sanctius his animal 
mentisque capacius alttR, &c." which Dryden thus translates: — 

** A creature of a more exalted kind, 
Was wanting yet, and then was man design'd : 
Conscious of thought, of more capacious breast, 
For empire form'd, and fit to rule the rest ; — 
Thus while the mute creation downward bend 
Their sight, and to the earthly mother tend, 
Man looks aloft ; and with erected eyes 
Beholds his own hereditary skies." 

" The material part of the earth is adapted to nourish and main- 
tain the vegetable world, and this serves to support the animal 
kingdom, while the whole contributes to the maintenance and 
pleasure of man in his present state. But the intelligent and 
rational principle is capable of more elevated enjoyments and ex- 
ercises in the pursuit of truth, and the discernment of right and 
wrong ; and still more, in yielding due homage to his Creator, and 
in presenting cordial cApressious of gratitude, veneration, and 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D,, I'. A. S. 



585 



^^'OI•slJip. It is very observable, however, that some disorder has 
affected the human race. We search in vain in the book of nature 
to ascertain either the cause or the remedy of this evil. Revelation 
alone furnishes this most important of all knowledge. The sacred 
Scriptures shew us the path of life, and direct us in the right use 
and management of nature in general, as it respects the promotion 
of our present and future felicity." 

SECTION XXII. 

Dr. Clarke s Commentary on the Old and New Testament — Strictures 
on the Biographer of Mr. Robert Hall. 

Having glanced at Dr. Clarke's minor productions, it now only 
remains to take some brief notice of his great work on Biblical in- 
terpretation and criticism ; the fruit of many years patient industry 
and research; the result of much reading and study ; and, certainly, 
that portion of his labours on which he most valued himself on the 
score of usefulness, and to which he looked forward as the basis of 
his posthumous fame. Allusion has already been made to it on 
more occasions than one, in the preceding pages of this memoir ; 
and particularly at p. 340, when, recording the appearance of the 
first section, where the reader was presented with the Author's 
" Advertisement," in which he apprised the public of what he in- 
tended his work to be ; and an abstract of the General Preface was 
also laid before him. He may, if he pleases, revert back to that 
part of the memoir, and refresh his recollection with what has been 
there said 

Probably this is the fittest place for taking some notice of a cir- 
cumstance briefly mentioned in the introduction to the present 
** Memoir," p. 3, namely, the severe censure which is said to have 
been passed upon Dr. Clarke's Commentary, by two distinguished 
divines oi different denominations, in a conversation held by them 
respecting the merits of the publication, soon after it issued from 
the press. The gentlemen referred to were Dr. Mason of New 
York, and the late Mr. Robert Hall, then of Leicester, The reader 
will find the particulars of this conversation there given in a note 

5f 



586 MEI\IOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

at the foot of the page, which renders it unnecessary to repeat it 
here. The quotation there made is from a Life of Robert 
Hall, by John Webster Morris,'' but it does not appear very satis- 
factorily, whether the narrator w^as himself privy to this conversa- 
tion, or it was retailed to him afterwards at second hand, which is 
the more probable supposition of the two ; and if that were the 
case there can be little reliance placed upon it. The reader who 
shall take the trouble to dissect the conversation as there reported, 
will probably find his suspicions of its credibility somewhat excited 
by the difficulty which he will find of attributing to the respective 
speakers their portion of the dialogue, and the question will present 
itself whether in some part of the alleged conversation it be not 
loquitur Monns, whether present or absent ? In particular, when 
w^e read that " Dr. Mason said, the Commentary of a late eccentric, 
but distinguished writer, had been reprinted at New York," — the 
expression " a late eccentric," must be the language of Mr. Morris, 
and not of Dr. Mason, because Dr. Clarke was then living, and 
consequently Dr. M. would not have spoken of a late writer. It is 
difficult also to believe that Dr. Mason would so far commit himself 
as to say that the Commentary " had produced general disappoint- 
ment in the United States, and was therefore discontinued because 
I have been credibly informed that the reverse teas the fact ! 

Again : we are further told " it was expected that its voluminous 
contents would have provided a fund for English Catholicism and 
sound critique, instead of which it was the most outrageous for party 
principles of any thing that had of late years been written, and 
many of its criticisms were evidently feeble and pedantic : more- 
over, that the work abounds with evident paradoxes, transforming 
the Serpent into an Oran-Outang ; making Solomon an apostate, 
and Judas a penitent, with many other such like reveries to counte- 
nance a set of dogmas and preconceived opinions, sparing no part of 
criticism which militates against them." 

Here again, one is tempted to ask, whose criticism is this — is it 
Dr. Mason's, or Mr. Hall's, or Mr. J. W. Morris's ? What are the 
party principles which characterise the Commentary, and which are 
pronounced to be the most outrageous that have been published of 
late years? It is well known that Dr Clarke always avowed him- 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE. LL. D., I". A. S, 587 

self an x'irminian ; is it pretended that he made his work the vehicle 
of the principles of any other party ? or that he has outraged 
Arminianism in his efforts to defend it ? If the former, which is 
that party ? But if not, what is the ground of this outcry against 
him ? Why it seems he has transformed the Serpent into an Oran- 
Outang, made Solomon an apostate, and Judas a penitent, with 
similar reveries — "to countenance a set of dogmas and precon- 
ceived opinions, sparing no part of criticism which militates against 
them" — that is, I presume, against those "preconceived opinions !" 
The amount of the whole, then, turns out to be this — that Dr. 
Clarke had certain preconceived opinions, different from what are 
held by the Arminian party in general, and to support these opinions, 
it was necessary to convert the Serpent into an Oran-Outang, make 
Solomon an apostate, and Judas a penitent — as if there was any 
necessary connection between those speculative points, and Dr. 
Clarke's theological sentiments ! ! And this nonsense Mr. Morris 
would palm upon Dr. Mason, or Mr. Hall, or both. But shall we 
believe him that either of these respectable ministers indulged 
themselves in such a strain of hyper-criticism ? Is it not much more 
probable that the whole emanates from the biographer's own fertile 
brain, and profound judgment, of which they are so worthy. I am 
aware, however, that there is one difficulty in the way of our ad- 
mitting this interpretation of the matter, and I shall submit it to the 
candid consideration of the reader, who may probably find out a 
method of solving it, though I confess myself unable to do so ; the 
difficulty is this : A few years ago this same biographer of Robert 
Hall, the very identical John Webster Morris, had occasion to pub- 
lish to the world his opinion of Dr. Clarke's Commentary; and 
how does the reader think he then described it ? Why, he did it 
in one word — it was INVALUABLE ! Yes, reader, this same 
Work, which is now characterised as " the most outrageous foi' party 
principles of any thing that has of late years been written, and of 
which the criticisms are evidently feeble and pedantic — a work 
which now abounds with evident paradoxes, was, at the time of its 
publication, held up by the pen of this very same writer, as a pub- 
lication superlative value I That the reader may not suspect me 
of jesting with him ou this occasion, I request him to turn to Mv 



538 MEMOIRS or THE LIFE, MINiSlRY, AND WRITINGS, 

Morris's Life of Mr. Andrew Fuller, 1st edition, p. 368, and he will 
fi ul the following character of Dr. Clarke's performance. 

" While engaged in this arduous contest (viz. defending the Bap- 
tist mission to India) Mr. Fuller received no material assistance, 
except fi om one quarter ; but was left to maintain the conflict alone 
and had to produce his voluminous pamphlets in the course only 
of a few weeks. The present Dr. Adam Clarke, author of a learned 
and INVALUABLE Commentary on the Scriptures, kindly tender- 
ed his " Remarks" on the vindication written by a Bengal officer^ 
which appear duly acknowledged in the second part of Mr. Fuller s 
Apology, under the title of " Audi et alteram partem!^ 

Thus the reader perceives that the identical work which in the 
life of Fuller was held up as above all price is in the life of Hall 
decried as worthless trash, and this by the pen of the same matchless 
biographer ! Perhaps the reader will think he has had enough of 
this " unprincipled"* writer, whom I leave upon the horns of a di- 
lemma from which he may extricate himself as he can. He informs 
us that Mr. Hall acknowledged Dr. Clarke to be an ocean of 
earning"' — but " so void of all taste and just discrimination, that 
nis judgment was not to be trusted in any case that interferes with 
his speculative peculiarities." 

Now here, one would gladly know, what are the " speculative 
peculiarities," referred to, which were maintained by Dr. Clarke, 
and by which his judgment was so warped that he was not to be 
trusted in any case that interfered with them ? Are we to understand 
that his peculiar opinions respecting the serpent — the final state of 
Solomon — or that of Judas Iscariot, were, if wrong, of so pernicious 
a quality that they extended their malignant influence to more than 
the Jive points on which the Arminians differ from the Calvinists ? 
How far they affect those five points we are most of us competent 
to judge — and that is, not in the least ! They leave those discrimi- 
nating tenets precisely where they found them. The holding of 
these " speculative peculiarities" did not render Dr. Clarke more 
Arminianized than he was before he entertained them ; nor more so 
than Mr. Wesley was, or the rest of his followers. What then are 
the " cases" or points, on which the judgment of Dr Clarke is not 

* I borrow the epithet " uuprinciplcd" from one of Mr. Morris*^ own letters. 



OF TPIE REV, ADAM CLARKE, IX. D., F. A. S. 



589 



to be trusted? Every Calvinist, will, as a matter of course, enter- 
tain a proper degree of distrust and jealousy, when any of the 
five points come under consideration ; not because Dr. Clarke 
transformed the serpent into an ape, or held that Solomon died an 
apostate, and Judas a penitent; for it would require the skill of an 
Oedipus to make out any connection between these " speculative 
peculiarities/* and " the faith once delivered to the saints but be- 
cause these same " five points" affect the doctrine of divine grace, 
and consequently the character of the blessed God, and the way of 
salvation. But what, I would gladly know, are the other doctrines, 
cases, or points which these " speculative peculiarities" are thought 
so dangerously to affect, as, like the dead fly in the apothecary's 
ointmentto send forth a disgusting savour? On this question, im- 
portant as it is, Mr. Morris is silent ! His report of this curious 
conversation is not ill calculated to create a vulgar prejudice against 
Dr. Clarke's Commentary, which is probably all he had in view in 
writing it, and if so, we cannot envy him his gratification. 

It was probably with the view of relieving Dr. Clarke from many 
irksome circumstances ever attendant on the publishing of a large 
and expensive work, that his brother-in-law, Mr. Joseph Butter- 
worth, consented to become, in the most important sense of the 
term his " Mecaenas," his patron. An arrangement was entered 
into, whereby Mr. Butterworth kindly relieved the author from the 
drudgery of dancing after the paper makers, stationers, letter-press 
and copper-plate printers, engravers, booksellers &c. &c ; all these 
things he kindly took upon his own hands, advancing funds for car- 
rying on the work whenever they were wanted — Keeping the ac- 
counts, and in short, leaving the Doctor as little to do with affairs 
of this kind as possible, while the Commentary was proceeding. 
Every author who knows by experience what endless perplexity ap- 
pertains to these matters, will be ready to admit, that the services 
which Mr. Butterworth rendered to his friend in this instance must 
have been incalculable. It is due to the memory of Mr. Butter- 
worth, also, to add that they were disinterested ; and I am the 
more anxious to record this, inasmuch as an opinion to the 
contrary has been afloat in the world. The facts, however, so far 
as my information extends, may be thus, stated. Mr. Butterworth 
had made over to him the copy-right of the first, or quarto edi- 



590 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

tion of the Commentary, pursuant to an agreement between the au* 
thor and him, the consequence of which was, that he paid all the 
current expences, kept all the accounts, paid Dr. Clarke a stipula- 
ted sum per sheet, or published section, while the work was in pro- 
gress ; and, dying soon after its completion, and while Dr. Clarke 
and his wife were yet living, there was found, at the credit of the 
family, a sum of nearly, if not wholly, seven thousand pounds, 
the interest of which was receivable by the parents during their 
lives, and on the decease of the last survivor, the principal itself is 
to be divided amongst their offspring. This, I understand, from 
good authority, to be the arrangement in reference to this concern ; 
and, if so, the memory of Mr. Butterworth ought to be held in vene- 
ration by the family, for his services were such as very few indivi- 
duals, besides himself, couid have rendered them. 

To enter upon any elaborate series of critical remarks on Dr. 
Clarke's Commentary is not within my province, nor shall I attempt 
it. My own views cf divine truth are well known to differ as re- 
spects some leading doctrines of the Gospel, widely from those of 
Dr. Clarke, and I have consequently been led> in the course of these 
" memoirs," to offer ^occasional strictures on certain parts of his 
creed to which I could not subscribe : but whatever of this kind 
may be found, is done for the reader's profit, who is left at perfect 
liberty to reject them, whenever he thinks them unfounded. In 
offering them, I solemnly protest against having any other object 
in view than to serve the cause of Truth, and therefore I do not 
think them fairly entitled to the reception they have met with 
among the Doctor's admirers. My wish has been to speak as unto 
wise men, leaving them to exercise an unbiassed judgment on what 
I say. " It is pleasant," says Lord Bacon, " to stand upon the shore 
and see ships toss'd upon the sea : but no pleasure is comparable to 
that of standing upon the vantage ground of truth (a hill not to be 
overlooked, and where the air is always clear and serene) and to 
contemplate the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, 
in the valley below : so always that this prospect be with pity, and 
not with swelling or pride. Certainly, it is heaven upon earth to 
have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn 
upon the poles of truth.' Can there be a more pitiable object than 



OF TFIE REV, ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A.S. 



591 



that of a man who locks up his mind in prejudice, and sheltering 
himself behind the walls of fancied orthodoxy refuses to listen to 
any thing that may be temperately offered in opposition to hisopin- 
ion ? Assuredly, Dr Clarke was not that man. Though a decided 
Arminian in his doctrinal sentiments, he could read the writings of 
a Calvinist, and avail himself of whatever he found in them that 
would assist him in improving his Commentary. In proof of this 
the reader need not go further than to the Preface of his work, where 
he acknowledges his obligations to the learned Henry Ainsworth's 
Annotations on the Pentateuch, as formerly quoted (page 345 
note) — yet Ainsworth was a most decided Calvinist! Nor did Dr. 
Clarke stop here; he did not think it beneath him to stoop so far 
as to listen to counsel emanating from the lips of a living Calvinist 
on matters pertaining to his Commentary, and to express his regret 
that he could not be oftener favoured with it. And in proof of this 
I refer to the letter which he addressed to the late Mr. Hughes of 
Battersea,^as formerly quoted, (p. 355,) in which he tells him, " I 
prefer your judgment to^my own ; glad should I be to have the pri- 
vilege of consulting it on many occasions: I think few cases would 
occur in which I should not most gladly follow its directions." 
Now this is very honourable to Dr. Clarke's memory ; it shews that 
he did not consider himself infallible — nor that all excellency cen- 
tered in his own party ; would to God, that all his followers would 
imitate his example I . •> i • 

As Dr. Clarke's extensive learning is universally admitted, even 
by those who are opposed to his theological creed and depreciate 
his taste and judgment, it is the less necessary to enlarge upon 
that topic in this place. His reading, and the stores of classical 
learning which he accumulated were, certainly immense ; and when 
we take into consideration that he had not the advantage of a col- 
lege education, they must appear wonderful. This fund of learning- 
he has brought to bear upon his Commentary, and in many instan- 
ces, more especially in the historical part of the Old Testament, to 
good purpose. If in some cases, the application of his classical 
quotations are fanciful, and serve rather for display than usefulness, 
that is not universally the case. It lias enabled him to throw con- 
siderable light upon several difficult passages, and to rescue them 



592 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

from the objections of sceptical and infidel writers; among which 
may be particularly mentioned, what relates to the plagues of 
Egypt, Exod. viii. ix. x. and xii. — the sun and the moon standing 
still. Josh. x. — the subjects of embalming and honouring the dead. 
Gen. 1. with many others which might be specified, were it neces- 
sary. To myself indeed, his illustration of the historical and pro- 
phetical parts of the Bible appear much preferable to that of the 
writings of the Evangelists and Apostles; but the reader will pro- 
bably attribute this to the circumstance of its affording fewer 
opportunities for introducmg his Jive points, and if he do so I shall 
not demur. 

To give one instance in proof of what has been now adverted to, I 
may observe, that in his Comment upon the Apostolic epistles. Dr. 
Clarke has made considerable use of the writings of an Arian 
divine of the last century, viz. the learned Dr. Taylor, of Norwich, 
a writer of unquestionable erudition, but whose views of the nature, 
character, and privileges of the Christian church, appear to me of 
a very questionable, or rather shall I say, of a very heterodox de- 
scription. The work from which Dr. Clarke has quoted so liberally, 
is entitled a Key to the Apostolic writings " — a work on which I 
am tempted to offer a few remarks, solely with the view of putting 
the reader upon his guard, in perusing that important portion of 
Dr. Clarke's Commentary. 

Dr. Taylor rightly asserts that men and women become members 
of the Christian church by faith, without the works of the law, no 
kind of obedience performed by them, whether perfect or imperfect 
entitling them to that privilege, § 147: but then he reduces the 
privileges of the Christian church to little, and faith to still less. For 
according to that learned author, the faith which gives a person a 
place or standing in the Christian church, was a faith consistent 
with a person's remaining wicked and perishing eternally : being 
nothing more than a profession of faith in Christ as the Saviour of 
the world, simply considered, and separately from its fruits and 
effects. By virtue of such faith, he tells us, however, that all with- 
out distinction are admitted to the church and covenant of God, 
and to all the honours, privileges, and grants therewith connected, 
luch as election, salvation, justification, adoption, sanctification,&c 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. ^93 

but that these privileges do not ascertain the favour of God in a 
future world. Now, though election, salvation, &c. are high-sound- 
ing terms, yet when Dr. Taylor comes to explain the view he has 
of them, it amounts to little more than this, that such persons are 
delivered from the power of Heathenish darkness, which many are 
who do not profess Christianity, as much as they who profess with- 
out believing it.* 

There are two principal pillars on which the foregoing system rests. 
The first is, that God is said to elect, save, call, create, beget, nay even 
to wash, purge, and sanctify the people of the Jews, — that he is 
spoken of as their God, Father, and Husband ; and they are termed 
his children, spouse, saints, a holy nation, &c. yet their being thus 
exalted in spiritual privileges above other nations, did not insure 
to them the continuance of the favour of the Most High. On the 
contrary, the most terrible judgments in time and eternity were de- 
nounced against them, if they neglected to improve these privileges; 
and when disobedient to the will of heaven, many of these, his 
chosen people, fell a sacrifice to his vengeance. Key, ch. ii. & iii. 
Hence the Doctor reasons, that believing Gentiles are taken into 
that covenant, out of which the unbelieving Jews were cast ; the 
visible kingdom of God, of which the Jews were anciently the only 
members, being now enlarged to admit all who believe in Christ, 
to the same, nay to greater spiritual advantages than the Jews en- 
joyed. Key, ch. v. Since then Christians are taken into that king- 
dom from which the unbelieving Jews were ejected, and since the 
privileges of Christians are expressed by the same phrases with 
those of the ancient Jewish church, unless we admit a strange 
abuse of language, these phrases when applied to them, and when 
applied to us^ must convey the same general ideas. Christians, 
therefore, are God's elect, as selected from the rest of the world, 
and taken into his visible kingdom. God has saved, redeemed, 
created, begot them, inasmuch as he bought and rescued them 
from their wretched situation in heathen ignorance and idolatry : 
and they are saints, a holy nation, sanctified, washed, &c. as being 
set apart and appropriated in a special manner to God's honour, 



• See Dr. Clarke's Preface to the Epistle to the Romans, 
5 0 



594) MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE. MINISTRY^ AND WRITING^, 

service, and obedience, and as furnished with extraordinary means 
and motives to holiness. And as such privileges once belonged to 
every Jew, so now they belong to all professed Christians, not even 
those excepted, who for misimproving are threatened to have their 
candlestick removed out of its place, Kei/, ch. ii. This is Dr. Tay- 
lor's scheme. 

But plausible as this may appear, it labours under this radical 
and fatal objection, that it confounds the two covenants, the Old 
and the New, the Jewish and Christian dispensations or economies, 
making those to be identical, which are as opposite in their natures, 
properties, and effects, as flesh and spirit, earth and heaven, type 
and antitype. To set this matter in a proper light, it may be 
observed that the Old or Sinai Covenant, was only a temporal rela- 
tion betwixt God and a particular nation, which is now done away, 
and come to an end, Heb. viii. 13. Whereas the New Covenant is 
an eternal relation betwixt God and his people from among all na- 
tions, and is therefore called an everlasting covenant, Heb. xiii. 20. 
The Old covenant was carnal and earthly : — the New covenant is 
spiritual and heavenly ; and here the contrast branches out into a 
variety of ramifications — such as (1) Its worship, which under the 
former dispensation stood only in meats and drinks, and divers 
washings and carnal ordinances, according to Heb. ix. 10, but 
under the New Covenant, God requires a true heart, faith, and a 
good conscience, and to be performed in spirit and in truth. Heb. 
X. 19,23, John iv. 23. (2) Its sacrifices, under the first covenant 
consisted of bulls and goats, which could never take away sin or 
purge the conscience, Heb. ix. 9, and x. 4, but under the New, the 
only sacrifice is that of Christ, which perfects for ever them that 
are sanctified, Heb. x. 14. But observe (3) Its Mediator; under 
the Old covenant was Moses, Gal. iii. 19, — under the New it is 
Christ Jesus, Heb. xii. 24. (4) Under the Old covenant the priests 
were Aaron and his sons, who were sinful mortals, and not suffered 
to continue by reason of death, Heb. vii. 23, 28. Under the New 
covenant, Christ is the only high priest over the house of God, and 
be abideth a priest continually, ever living to make intercession 
for us, Heb. vii. 24 — 26. (5) Under the former dispensation, the 
sanctuary was worldly and made with hands, Heb. ix. 1 , 24. under 



OF THE REV, ADAIVl CLARKE. LL. D.. F. A. S. 595 

the new, its sanctuary is heaven itself, into which our great high 
priest has entered, with his own blood having obtained eternal re- 
demption for us, Heb. ix. 12. (6) The promises of the Old cove- 
nant^ were worldly blessings in earthly places, and respected only 
a prosperous life in the earthly Canaan, Deut. xxviii. 1 — 15, Isa. i. 
19, Josh. xxi. 43, 45, ch. xxiii. 14 — 16, but the promises of the 
New covenant are spiritual blessings in heavenly places, and chiefly 
respect the life to come, and the enjoyment of the heavenly inheri- 
tance, Eph. i, 3. Tit. i. 2. Heb. viii. 6, and xi. 16. And now, lastly, 
observe the difference in the two covenants, as regards their re- 
spective subjects, or people covenanted. Those of the first covenant 
were the fleshly seed of Abraham, related to God as his typical 
people, and to Christ as his kinsman according to the flesh ; which 
typical and fleshly relation availed them much towards the enjoy- 
ment of the typical and earthly privileges of that covenant ; but as 
Hagar, the bond woman, was cast out with her son born after the 
flesh, so the covenant itself being antiquated, its temporal typical 
privileges vanished, its subjects were cast out and disinherited ; the 
fleshly relation on which they received circumcision availed nothing 
for their partaking of spiritual privileges, nor were they as children 
of this covenant, admitted heirs with the children of the free woman, 
or New covenant, Rom. ix. 4, 9. Gal. vi. 15. and iv. 22 — 31. Look 
now at the character of the subjects of the New covenant ; they 
are the spiritual seed of Abraham, typified by the fleshly seed ; 
being chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world — predes- 
tinated unto the adoption of children, and redeemed by the blood 
of Christ. These are the children of the promise, who, in God's 
appointed time, are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, 
nor of the will of man, but of God, being born again, not of cor- 
ruptible seed, but of incorruptible, even by the word of God, which 
liveth and abideth for ever. These have the law of God written 
on their hearts, and all know him from the least unto the greatest. 
Through this work of the Holy Spirit, they believe on the name of 
the Son of God, and by the profession of this their faith, they ap- 
pear to be the seed of Abraham, children of the free woman, and 
heirs according to the promise, to whom belong all spiritual privi- 



596 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

leges, Eph. i. 4, 5. 1 Pet. i. 18, 19. John i 13. 1 Pet. i. 23. Heb 
viii. 10, 11. Gal. iii. 26, 29. and iv. 28, 31. Acts ii. 41, 42. 

Such, and so great is the contrast which the inspired writers have 
drawn between those two covenants which Dr. Taylor in his Key 
to the Apostolic writings has confounded, and to such an extent as 
to make them both one and the same ; and into this most palpable 
error. Dr. Clarke has unwittingly fallen : — an error which could 
not fail to s}>read its baneful influence, more or less, throughout his 
illustration of that important part of the sacred writings ! We rea- 
dily acknowledge, indeed, that the state, the member-ship, the privi- 
leges, honours, and relations of Christians are expressed by the 
same phrases as those of the ancient Jewish church ; yet there is 
no abuse of language, though those phrases convey very different 
ideas, when applied to these different cases. If a covenant, securing 
outward privileges, typified a spiritual dispensation, the same 
phrases when applied to the first, must of necessity have a lower 
and meaner sense than when applied to the second. Attention to 
this obvious remark, would have prevented Dr. Taylor from mis- 
leading Dr. Clarke, and the latter from misleading his readers into 
so wretched a labyrinth. The name Israel is often given to the 
Christian church. Key § 75. Does it thence follow, that the Chris- 
tian church, like the Jewish, was composed of Israel's natural seed 
Certainly not. Why then is that name given to the Christian 
church ? Doubtless, because Israel after the flesh typified that 
church. Just for the same reason, the privileges of the Jewish 
church, are often expressed in terms which in their full and more 
spiritual sense are applicable only to true Christians. 

Dr. Taylor's second argument has a more specious appearance, 
certainly, but it is not more solid, and is as easily answered : the 
substance of it is this. Those to whom the Apostolic writers ad- 
dressed their epistles, are spoken of in general as saints, beloved of 
God, called by grace, justified by faith, holy brethren, God's chosen 
temple, the children of God, &c. Yet those very persons are ex- 
horted to stand fast in the faith, and walk worthy of their Christian 
vocation : they are cautioned to take heed lest they fall — lest any 
man beguile them of their reward — lest being led aside by the 
error of the wicked they fall from their own stedfastness, &c. Nay 



Of THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D. F. A. S. 



597 



they are told "if ye live after the flesh ye shall die;' with muih 
more to the same effect. Election therefore, adoption, vocation, 
salvation, justification, sanctification, &c. are, according to Dr. 
Taylor, antecedent blessings belonging to all Christians, even those 
who for their wickedness do perish everlastingly ; and do not import 
any thing necessarily or absolutely connected with a right temper 
and behaviour, with stedfastness in religion, and with the enjoyment 
of eternal life. Key, ch. x. xi. xii. 

Now the fact alleged is fully admitted : namely, that in the in- 
scriptions of Paul's epistles, and other places of the Apostolic 
writings, whole churches are termed holy, though probably many 
hypocrites lurked among them. But what then ? Is it not mani- 
fest that the Apostles addressed them according to their professed 
character of believers in Christ, and as he tells them upon one 
occasion, ''it was meet for him to think thus of them all," Phil. i. 
7, — he addresses them upon a charitable supposition, that they all 
were what they professed to be — inwardly pious under the influ- 
ence of the gospel — quickened from a death of trespasses and sins, 
and made alive to God. There is, therefore, a palpable error in 
the inference which Dr. Taylor deduces from the fact above men- 
tioned. The Apostles did not consider hypocrites, though mingled 
with the church, as constituting any part of it ; and therefore, to 
have regarded them in their descriptions of churches, or addresses 
to them, would have been absurd. When any persons who had 
made a scriptural profession and united themselves to the churches, 
were found walking inconsistent with the rule of duty, the law of 
discipline (Matt, xviii. 15 — 18, and 1 Cor. v.) was called into ex- 
ercise, to reclaim offenders, expel the refractory, and keep pure the 
communion ; and when the lawless and disobedient took their de- 
parture from the churches, what was the language of the Apostles? 
" They went out from us, but they were not of us : for if they had 
been of us they would no doubt have continued with us ; but they 
went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all 
of us," 1 John ii. 19. Similar to this is the language of the Apostle 
Jude, ver. 19, *' These be they who separate themselves, sensual, 
having not the Spirit." Hypocrites may and do get access into the 



598 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

purest churches on earth ; aud for a very obvious reason — men are 
fallible, and cannot discern the heart. 

I merely throw out these few strictures on Dr. Taylor s Key to 
the Apostolic writings, which I now dismiss with expressing my 
unfeigned regret that Dr. Clarke should have adopted such an un- 
founded hypothesis as the basis of his Commentary. How much 
he was enamoured of it, may sufficiently appear from the following 
short paragraph which will be found towards the end of his obser- 
vations on the epistle to the Galatians, ch. vi. 

" I have made that use of Dr. Taylor Avhich I have done of 
others ; and have reason to thank God that his Key, passing through 
several wards of a lock, which appeared to me inextricable, has en- 
abled me to bring forth and exhibit in a fair and luminous point 
of view, objects and meanings in the epistle to the Romans, which, 
without this assistance, I had perhaps been unable to discover." 
Yet a more corrupt guide, in my humble judgment. Dr. Clarke 
could not easily have selected! 

And here I would have closed my remarks on Dr. Clarke's very 
learned and elaborate Commentary, were it not that I feel strongly 
tempted to add to them, and this I do solely for the reader's benefit, 
a few strictures on his very singular Preface to the Apocalypse. 
He enters upon the subject by submitting to his readers, four prin- 
cipal hypothesis or modes of interpreting that mysterious book. 
1. The Apocalypse contains (according to some) a prophetical 
description of the destruction of Jerusalem, of the Jewish war, and 
the civil wars of the Romans. This, he tells us, is the opinion de- 
fended by professor Wetstein, and other learned men on the conti- 
nent. 2. It contains predictions of the persecutions of the Christians 
under the Heathen emperors of Rome, and of the happy days ot 
the church under the Christian emperors from Constantine down- 
wards. This was the opinion of the primitive Fathers in general, 
both Greek and Latin. 3. It contains prophecies concerning the 
tyrannical and oppressive conduct of the Roman Pontiffs, the true 
Anti-christ; and fortels the final destruction of popery. This, he 
says, was fiirst broached by the Abbe Joachim, who flourished in 
the thirteenth century, was espoused by most of the Franciscans, 
and has been and still is the general opmion of the Protestants. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



599 



4. It is a prophetic declaration of the schism and heresies of Martin 
Luther, those called Reformers, and their successors ; and the final 
destruction of the protestant religion. This, he adds, seems to have 
been invented by popish writers, merely by way of retaliation ; and 
has been illustrated and defended at large by a Mr. Walmsley, 
titular Dean of Wells, in a work called '* The History of the 
Church," under the feigned name of Signior Pastorini. In this 
work he endeavours to turn every thing against Luther and the 
protestants, which they interpreted of the Pope and popery ; and 
attempts to shew, from a computation of the Apocalyptic numbers, 
that the total destruction of protestantism in the world will take 
place in 1825 ! But 1825 is passed by, and 1832 is come, and the 
protestant church is still in full vigour, while the Romish church is 
fast declining. 

All this will possibly amuse the reader : but, after presenting us 
with the various opinions of others concerning the scope and con- 
tents of the book, we naturally ask, which of them did Dr. Clarke 
hold with as the true one. Now let us hear him on this point ; 
" My readers," says he, " will naturally expect that I should either 
give a decided preference to some one of the opinions stated above, 
or produce one of my own ; I can do neither; nor can I pretend to 
explain the book ; / do not understand it ; and, in the things which 
concern so sublime and awful a subject, I dare not, as my prede- 
cessors, indulge in conjectures. I have read elaborate works on the 
subject, and each seemed right till another was examined. / am 
satisjied that no certain mode of interpreting the prophecies of this 
book has yet been found out, and I will not add another monument 
to the littleness or folly of the human mind by endeavouring to 
strike out a new course. I repeat it, I do not understand the book ; 
and / am satisfied that no one who has written on the subject kjiows 
any thing more of it than myself. 1 should perhaps except J. E. 
Clarke [the Doctor's nephew] who has written on the number of 
the beast.* His interpretation amounts nearly to demonstration ; 
but that is but a small part of the difficulties of the Apocalypse. — 
As to other mailers, I must leave them to God, or to those events 

* An admirable piece of conundruMy with wliich the Dr. has favoured his 
readers, in his note on Rev. ch. xiii. 18. Authok. 



600 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



which shall point out the prophecy ; and then, and probably not 
till then, will the sense of these visions be explained 

A conjecture concerning the design of the book may be safely 
indulged ; thus then it has struck me, that the book of the Apoca- 
lypse may be considered as a prophet continued in the church of 
God, uttering predictions relative to all times, which have their 
successive fulfilment as ages roll on : and thus it stands in the 
Christian church in the place of the succession of prophets in the 
Jewish church ; and by this especial economy, prophecy is still 
continued, is always speaking, and yet a succession of prophets 
rendered unnecessary. If this be so, we cannot too much admire 
the wisdom of the contrivance which still continues the voice and 
testimony of prophecy, by means of a very short book, without the 
assistance of any extraordinary messenger, or any succession of 
such messengers, whose testimony would at all times be liable to 
suspicion, and be the subject of infidel and malevolent criticism, 
howsoever unexceptionable to ingenious minds the credentials of 
such might appear. On this ground it is reasonable to suppose 
that several prophecies contained in this book have been already 
fulfilled, and that therefore it is the business of the commentator to 
point out such. It may be so ; but as it is impossible for me to 
l)ruve that my conjecture is right, I dare not enter into proceedings 
upon it, and must refer to bishop Newton, and such writers as have 
made this their particular study." This, at any rate, is a harmless 
theory. 

Now, what is the conclusion to which we are naturally brought 
by the sum total of this extract — is it not this in few words } that 
not only was Dr. Clarke ready to avow his own ignorance of the 
contents of the Apocalypse — that lie did not understand the hook, 
but that he was satisfied not one icho had written on the subject knew 
ani/ more of it than himself (his own nephew excepted). Yet in 
his general preface to the Book of Genesis, having passed a severe 
but well merited censure on Lord Napier and some others who had 
presumptuously attempted to fix " the times and the seasons which 
the Father hath reserved in his own hands the Doctor adds, 
" Writers who have endeavoured to illustrate different prophecies 
m the Apocalypse hy past events, and those that aj e noiv occurring, 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. J)., F. A. S. 



601 



are not included in this censure. Some respectable names in the 
present day, have rendered considerable service to the cause of 
Divine Revelation by the careful and pious attention they have paid 
to this part of the subject." 

I apprehend it must cost the reader some pains, as it certainly 
has done myself, to reconcile these apparently discordant state- 
ments ; and still more so to reconcile the concluding part of the 
last sentence with the following assertion with which he concludes 
his Preface to the Apocalypse ; " Shall I have the reader's pardon 
if I say that it is my firm opinion that the expositions of this book 
(without exception) have done great disservice to religion !" It is 
surely much to be desired, that, in the new edition of the Commen- 
tary now in course of publication, these seeming contradictions 
should have no place. I must trouble the reader with one extract 
more before I take a final leave of this subject. Thus the Doctor 
writes : — 

After having lived in one of the most eventful eras of th world ; 
after having seen a number of able pens employed in the illlustra- 
tion of this and other prophecies ; after having carefully attended 
to those facts which were supposed to be incontestible proofs of the 
fulfilment of such and such visions, seaU, trumpets, thunders, and 
vials of the Apocalypse ; after seeing the issue of that most terrible 
struggle which the French nation, the French republic, the French 
consulate, and the French empire, have made to regain and preserve 
their liberties, which, like arguing in a circle, have terminated 
where they began, without one political or religious advantage to them 
or to mankind : and after viewing how the prophecies of this book 
were supposed to apply almost exclusively to those events, the 
writers and explainers of these prophecies keeping pace in their 
publications, with the rapid succession of military operations, and 
confidently promising the most glorious issue, in the final destruc- 
tion of superstition, despotism, arbitrary power, and tyranny of all 
kinds, 7iothi7ig of which has been realised; I say, viewing all these 
things, I feel myself at liberty to state, that, to my apprehension, 
all these prophecies have been misapplied and misapprehended : 
and that the Key to them is not yet entrusted to the sons of men. 
My readers will therefore excuse me from an exposure of my igno- 
rance or folly by attempting to do what maiiv, with much more 

5 n 



602 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

wisdom and learning have attempted, and what every man to the 
present day has failed in, who has preceded me in expositions of 
this book. I have no other mountain to heap on those already 
piled up : and if had, I have not strength to lift it: those who have 
courage may again make the trial ; already we have had a suffici- 
ency of vain efforts." And then the Doctor quotes some lines from 
the Latin poet Virgil, which, if they have any applicability to the 
subject on which he has been already descanting, must be intended 
to impress his readers with the notion that any attempt to explain 
the Apocalypse is daringly profane and presumptuous — little short 
of an effort to scale the heavens 1 Thus Dryden translates them : 

*' With mountains piled on mountains chrice taey strove 
To scale tbe steepy battlements of Jove . 
And thrice his lightning and red thunder play'd. 
And their demolished works in ruin laid." 

Now taking into account the sum total of what Dr. Clarke has said 
upon this subject, would it not appear to have been his opinion that 
the Apocalypse was not only inexplicable to mortals in the present 
day, but further, that any effort to understand the book, and unra- 
vel its mysterious contents to others was to be deprecated ? and if 
so, how shall we account for the fact, that the very exordium to it 
holds out the strongest possible motives to encourage Christians to 
make it their study and to regulate their conduct by its lessons of 
instruction ? " Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the 
words of his prophecy, and keep (or observe) those things that are 
written therein : for the time is at hand," ver. 3. Is it the way of 
the spirit of inspiration to invite and encourage to that which is im- 
practicable ? For my own part, having devoted no inconsiderable 
portion of a long and laborious life to the study of this sublime 
book, and in humble efforts to explain it to others,* I am unwilling 
to believe that I have laboured altogether in vain, or that I am en- 
titled to Dr. Clarke's censure in the above extracts. I am rather 
disposed to subscribe to the judgment of the learned Archdeacon 
Woodhouse, who thus expresses himself on the matter. 

* See the writer's "Lectures on the Apocalypse," sold by Wightman, Pffter- 

nostcr-rcw, 1 vol. 8vo. 1833. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



€03 



" While the rash precipitancy of the enthusiastic and unqualified 
interpreter is to be discouraged, indulgence will justly be thought due 
to those, who, with pious caution, with laborious investigation, and 
literary research, endeavour to explore the prophecies of the Apo- 
calypse. To illustrate this mystical book in all its parts, to prove 
the completion of all its predictions, to exhibit it as that perfect evi- 
dence of the divine origin of our religion, for which it is perhaps 
intended * in the latter days' can only be the work of time, and must 
employ the labours of succeeding generations. Yet to interpret 
and explain, by scriptural induction, the symbols and language 
under which the events are presignified ; to separate and assort the 
prophecies; to discriminate those whose fulfilment has already ta- 
ken place, and to point out their agreement with certain records of 
history, is a work which at any time may be reverently attempted 
and is encouraged, and indeed authorised, in this divine book."* 

The candour and fairness of Dr. Clarke in declaring, as he re- 
peatedly does, that he himself did not understand the book of the 
Apocalypse, must be manifest to every one ; but when he dogmati- 
cally asserts, that not one who has written on the subject knows 
any more of it than he himself, he is not to be commended ; his lan- 
guage is rash and unwarrantable, and must appear so to every re- 
flecting mind. For, in the first place, it assumes as a fact what 
could not possibly be true, viz. that he himself had read all that 
had been written on the subject in every language and in every 
country — a monstrous and incredible assumption ! So far from 
that being the case, it may be fairly questioned if he had read the 
tenth part of what has been written on it. 

Another confident assertion and equally untenable is that in 
which he declares himself " satisfied that no certain mode of inter- 
preting the prophecies of this book has been yet found out" — that 
" the Key to them has not yet been entrusted to the sons of men" — 
and " that every attempt hitherto made to explain them has failed.' 
Now who can help lamenting that such a man as Dr. Adam Clarke 
should have indulged in such questionable assertions as these. 

* Chap. i. 3. ch. ii. 7, 11, 17, 29. ch. iii. 6, 13, 22. ch. xiii. 9, 17. ch xxii.- 
6, 7, 10. 



604 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

That he himself was not in possession of the " Key " to the right in- 
terpretation of these prophecies is cretlible enough — but to affirm 
that such was the case with all other men, is something like an in- 
sinuation that if heaven had thought fit to vouchsafe the gift to any 
of the human race it would assuredly be to him ! It was a source 
of rejoicing to our adorable Redeemer, in the days of his public mi- 
nistry, that his heavenly Father " had hid the mysteries of the 
Kingdom of heaven from the wise and prudent, of this world, and 
revealed them unto babes," Matt. xi. 25. On the score of human 
learning, I am ever ready to concede to Dr. Clarke whatever his 
warmest admirers may be disposed to claim for him ; while I hope 
it will be permitted me in return to say, that I am no way surprised 
he should remain unenlightened into the meaning of the Apoca- 
lypse : confident as I am, that the individual, whoever he be, that 
has not been taught to distinguish between the kingdom of Christ 
in its constitution, laws, and government, and the economy of Me- 
thodism, must assuredly want the Key which can alone unlock 
the mystical seals of the Apocalypse. The knowledge of the mind 
of Christ, in this series of prophecies, is to be sought after in the 
churches of the saints, and there we may expect to find it. This 
Key is neither more nor less than the import of Christ's good con- 
fession which he witnessed before Pontius Pilate, concerning his 
Kingdom, Joh. xviii. 36, 37. and illustrated to us in the history of the 
Acts of the Apostles. It is to persons gathered out of the world by 
the influence of the Truth, and collected into churches formed upon 
the model of those planted by the apostles, and not to professors 
mingled with the world in Christian fellowship, that the Key to this 
mysterious book is communicated. In proportion as the consump- 
tion of Antichrist goes on, so will this book be more and more un- 
veiled to the people of God, particularly as they become delivered 
from the doctrines and commandments of men in the affairs of re- 
ligion, and are led to follow the Captain of salvation, adhering 
closely to the rule of his word, and walking in the footsteps of the 
flock. 

Neither can I at all subscribe to what Dr. Clarke is pleased to 
say respecting the result of the French Revolution — particularly 
when he asserts thai the recent commotions in that country " have 



OF THE REV. ADAiM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A.S. 



605 



terminated where they began" — without the smallest religious ad- 
vantage either to that country or the world at large ; — that the ra- 
pid succession of military operations has contributed nothing towarch 
the destruction of superstition, despotism, and arbitrary power— in short, 
that nothing of the anticipated good has been realized. To me it is a 
matter of great surprise that Dr. Clarke should so far forget him- 
self as to write in this strain. Though I would not say that all 
that enthusiasts expected from the events of the Revolution has 
been gained, yet I am disposed to consider it as having been pro- 
ductive of great and substantial benefit to the cause of both civil 
and religious liberty. As respects the civil and political liberties of 
the French people, it is somewhat beyond my present province to 
speak — but we should marvel to find any writer of reputation af- 
firming that the inhabitants of France of the present day, were as 
much enslaved as under the old regime. Dr. Clarke himself would 
not afiirm it. But if the parallel do not hold as it relates to their 
civil liberties, much less will it hold when applied to liberty of con- 
science. What has become of the priesthood — that monstrous mass 
of clerical authority and spiritual domination, which, prior to the 
Revolution, sat as an incubus on the public mind, threatening with 
destruction every one who dared to think for himself in the affairs 
of religion ? What has become of the authority of the see of Rome 
in that country ? Of all the powers of Europe — the ten kingdoms 
into which the western Empire at its fall was divided — France con- 
tributed most towards raising Antichrist to his throne — and for 
more than a thousand years, the Papacy reclined on thebosomsof the 
kings of France for support. What is the state of matters now in refe . - 
enceto these two powers ? We have seen the armies of France marching 
into the very heart of the Pope's territories, regardless of the fulmi- 
nations of the Vatican — exacting enormous contributions from the 
" Vicar of God" — taking him prisoner of war, and dragging him 
captive at their chariot- wheels, — using him as a new plaything, and 
allowing the very power whose nod formerly kept the world in awe 
to exist only by sufferance ! Are we then to make no account of 
the tendency of these stupendous events to weaken the power of 
Antichrist, and consume the man of sin ? The writer of the Apoca- 
lypse (speaking by the spirit of prophecy) informs us that the 



606 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITING?, 

ten kings among whom the Roman empire was to be partitioneo 
out, should with one consent, give their power and strength to the 
beast. We know from history that they did so, and that their con- 
federacy lasted for more than a thousand years. But it is recorded 
by the same infallible pen, that these same ten kings should ulti- 
mately "hate the whore," i.e. Babylon the Great, the mother of 
harlots — "and make her desolate and naked — eat her flesh, and 
burn her with fire — for God hath put it into their hearts to fulfil 
his will, &c." And do we see nothing of this in the treatment 
which that power received at the hands of France during the last 
forty years ? How then could Dr. Clarke say that the French 
Revolution left the Apocalyptic prophecies as it found them ? 

I probably owe an apology to the reader for detaining him as 
I have done on this subject ; but I can only plead in my defence 
that I have been actuated by a sense of duty. I am compelled to 
regard what Dr. Clarke has written concerning the Apocalypse as 
fraught with an injurious tendency ; as calculated to deter his 
readers from studying a very important section of the oracles of 
God ; and so far as that is the case, it must do harm. His name 
stands high, his influence is great — the readers of his Commentary 
are many — and as to learning, he had few equals among all his 
cotemporaries. His Commentary, taken as a whole, is entitled to 
great praise ; but imperfection is the lot of man ; and, as is the case 
with all human productions, the hand of man may be discovered 
in it. 

SECTION xxni. 

Dr. Clarke s biography resumed and continued — His benevolent ex- 
ertions at home — Revisits Ireland, a.d. 1830 — Urges the aboli- 
tion of slavery — Is stimulated to establish schools in Ireland — 
Returns thither in 1831 

Having thus briefly glanced at the productions of Dr. Clarke's 
pen, we shall now return to his personal history, and notice the 
chief incidents in the few remaining years of his life, his last illnesa 
and death, and close with a short review of his character. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D. F. A. 



607 



We left the Doctor (p. 469) in the end of July, 1828, safely re- 
turned to his own home after a voyage to the Shetland islands. 
The remainder of that year was occupied partly in the bosom of 
his own family, at Haydon Hall, and from thence making occa- 
sional excursions into different parts of his own country, preaching 
and making collections in behalf of chapels and schools. On the 
31st of October we find him at Stockport, from whence he pro- 
ceeded to Manchester, to preach for the Methodist Sunday schools, 
)n which occasion the collection amounted to £150. 

His exertions during the year 1829, appear to have been upon a 
more circumscribed scale than ordinary. The Shetland mission 
lay near his heart, and he lost no opportunity of advancing its in- 
terests. Chapels were multiplying in these islands, and as it was 
a fixed rule with Dr. Clarke never to have any debt upon them, 
he found considerable difficulty in procuring adequate funds to 
meet the calls of builders, and carry on the missionary cause, and 
this harassed him not a little. 

It was towards the close of this year, also, that he began to pre- 
pare the copy for the publication of his three volumes of Sermons, 
lately noticed, and on the 12th of November, he was again at 
Stockport, from whence he wrote to one of his daughters, giving 
her the following humorous account of what he calls " the Halifax 
business." It seems the Doctor had gone thither on one of his 
usual errands — to preach a collection sermon. " Sunday morning 
came, and the weather was pretty fair, and the country people be- 
gan to come in at an early hour. I was to preach in the old cha- 
pel, which is much larger than the new one, and the trustees had 
set collectors at the foot of the gallery stairs, to take silver from 
all who should go thereup. This answered for a short time, but 
when John Bull, and his own natural family came, they began to 
say, * We han cummin mony a moile to hear Doctor Clairke, and 
ye wantin silver fra we ? ye shan ha none.' They forthwith 
turned the boxes to right and left, and the collectors with them ; 
forced all the passes ; took the whole chapel by storm, and in a 
trice filled all the great seats, reserved seats, and preserved seats, 
and possessed the whole from stem to stern, and that with vast 
quietness, all things considered. Finding how things went, though 



608 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WJIITINGS, 

I was there half an hour before the time, I immediately got inta 
the pulpit, and having spoken a few words to order, began my 
work. Though the press was intense, there was absolute stillness. 
I preached by the power of God, and some people I afterwards 
found had been blessed exceedingly. When I had finished, and 
looked over the congregation, though I was thankful such a mass 
of the poor had had the gospel preached unto them, yet I felt for 
the collection. This feeling was not a little increased when I went 
into the vestry, and saw a basket brought in, containing apparently 
about forty pounds weight of copper, without a shilling, sixpence, 
gold, or paper among it ! However, when that and the collection 
plates were reckoned, I was surprised, and thankful to find, that 
there were fourscore and three pounds sterling!" 

The winter of 1829, proved a remarkably severe one, and find- 
ing the poor in his neighbourhood severely oppressed by it. Dr. 
Clarke exerted himself to the utmost of his power in mitigating 
their distresses by distributing among them food and clothing. A 
benevolent gentleman who resided in the neighbourhood, heard of 
his beneficent exertions, and begged to present him with twenty 
pounds from his own purse, to be laid out in whatever way he 
pleased, and to be dispensed in similar acts of charity. With this 
increased stock, he immediately proceeded to town, for the pur- 
pose of purchasing blankets, flannel, calico, &c. &c. which was 
distributed among seventy poor families, whose comfort was essen- 
tially promoted thereby. 

A letter written in the month of January, 1830, to one of his 
daughters, after a slight mention of what he suflfered personally 
from fatigue, and an exposure to the inclemency of the season, 
contains the following statement of the resolutions which he had 
formed on the coming in of the new year, and is worthy of inser- 
tion in this place as an example to others. " With the new year, 
I felt a purpose to mend, particularly in two things. First, to 
read my Bible more regularly, and to get through it once more 
before I die. My second purpose was, to bear the evils and cala- 
mities of life with less pain of spirit : if I suflfer wrong, to leave it 
to God to right me ; to murmur against no dispensation of his 
providence ; to bear ingratitude and unkindness, as things totally 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S 609 

beyond my control, and consequently things on account of which 
I should not distress myself, and though friends and confidants 
should fail, to depend more on my everlasting Friend, who never 
can fail, and to tlie unkindly treated, will cause all such things to 
work together for their good As to wicked men, I must suffer 
them; for the wicked will deal wickedly, that is their nature, and 
from them nothing else can be ex}3ected. 

"Again, I have resohed to withdraw as much as possible from 
Aie cares and anxieties of public life, having grappled with them 
as long as the number of my years can well permit, and in this 
respect I have a conscience as clear as a diamond, that in simpli- 
city and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace 
of God, I have had my conversation among men ; and now I feel 
that, "with the necessaries and conveniencies of life, I can cheerfully 
take up in the wilderness, the lodging-place of a way-faring man , 
I no longer like strange company of any kind ; not that 1 have 
fallen out, or would fall out with the world ; for, thank God, I feel 
nothing of the misanthrope : I am ready to spend and be spent for 
the salvation or good of men. In all these things T think I am gain- 
ing ground, and yet I have many grievous things to contend with. 
Shetland, and its concerns are still a heavy burden upon my spirit; I 
do not get the help I should receive from some who should help ; 
the whole burden is about my neck, and I have begged till I am 
ashamed of asking more from my friends — I cannot swim against 
the stream : I must act like Hagar, ' lay the lad under a bush, 
and retire to a distance, lest I see the child die,' &c. &:c." 

In the month of March, 1830, Dr. Clarke undertook another 
preaching tour, visiting Derby, Manchester, Ashton-under-Line, 
Stockport, and Liverpool, where liberal collections were made ; that 
in Manchester amounted to £103; and that at Salford, in the 
evening of the same day, £105. On this occasion the Doctor thus 
writes, " The congregation (at Salford) was overwhelming, the 
silence of death prevailed, and there was not an eye apparently in 
the place, that had any other object in view than the preacher's 
face. I was very weak ; but spoke the deepest and highest things 
concerning God, the human soul, and its redemption, that I have ever 
uttered ['^'^ Before the congregation was dismissed, ihey had 

5 I 



610 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

reckoned the collection, and a person came in and announced 
' the collection amounts to one hundred and five pounds.* In 
such times, having suffered so much from poverty, and various 
distresses, such collections, within a mile of each other, and on the 
same day too, were truly astonishing. I believe, if the people 
were obliged to fast, they would still give their money when I 
beg." 

In the following month (April) Dr. Clarke set out on another 
visit to Ireland, and reaching Liverpool, he was detained there 
some days by tempestuous weather. However, he sailed on the 
21st, by the Chieftain, steamer, for Belfast, accompanied by his 
friend, Mr. Everett, of Manchester, and arrived on the following 
day. While treading his native soil, he was gratified by meeting 
with some old people who knew him while a boy, and who re- 
minded him of some of his earliest preachings — the time, place 
and text, &c. At Port Stuart, on the 27th of April, he thus 
writes in his Journal : I went over all this port, visiting in 
their houses those whom 1 had known, and with whom I had 
been in religious fellowship nearly fifty years ago. I found 
but few of that time remaining, but many of their descendants. 
In each house, I spoke particularly on the things of God, and the 
necessity of preparing for a better world, and in every house I 
prayed with the family. I'his was pleasing to all. Several of the 
old people were in raptures, and some of them being blind, could 
not help still thinking, that 'the little boy,' and 'the good little 
boy,* that was used so long ago to visit and pray with them, was 
now come again after a lengthened absence. Of my present 
growth they could not judge, being from their blindness unable to 
discern objects, and their minds passed over the lapse of fifty years 
without difiiculty. The past they immediately connected with the 
present ; and half a century was at once lost. One effect of this 
was, they forgot their own advance in life ; forgot the sorrows and 
trials of fifty years, and talked with me in the same endearing 
strain and affectionate manner, in which they were once accus- 
tomed to converse with * the little boy.* * O my dear, how glad I 
am that you are come again ! how glad I am to hear you once 
more.' Even the children hearing their grandfathers and grand 



OF THE RF.V, ABAM CLARKE, LL. D., F, A. S. 6ll 



mothers talk thus, seemed at once to consider me as some one of 
the family that had been out on a journey for a long time, but 
was now returned home, and to me how delightful was this morn- 
ing's visits." 

The following is an extract from his Journal on this tour. 

" May \st. — What pleasing ideas are awakened in my mine , 
while visiting these scenes of my boyish days, and passing by the 
place where I first heard the pure gospel of the Son of God, and 
first saw a methodist preacher ; and especially when T entered that 
field, where, after having passed through a long night of deep 
mental and spiritual affliction, the peace of God was spoken to my 
heart, and his love shed abroad in it ! I would give almost any 
thing to buy that field where I found the heavenly treasure ; but 
it is not to be sold! Oh, it almost makes me young again, to 
view those scenes ! The boisterous winds are now driving the 
tremendously majestic surges of the Deucaledonian sea almost to 
my feet. I have to day purchased a house in Port Stuart. In 
nomine Efernae et Individuas Trinifatis ! From all the circum- 
stances narrated above, the place is dear to me. Here I purpose 
spending three months in the succeeding summers of my life, if it 
be spared. May God smile on what I have done, and make it a 
blessing to myself, and the many among whom it is my intention 
to proclaim the word of life and salvation !" 

Thus it is that we short-sighted mortals, plan and scheme, and 
make our arrangements for futurity. "Their inward thought is, 
that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places 
to all generations ; they call their lands after their own names — 
this their way is their folly, yet their posterity approve their say- 
ings." Ps. xlix. Dr. Clarke was now rapidly approaching the end 
of his earthly career, and there were only two summers in reserve 
for him to spend in his native country. Four days afterwards he 
took his departure from Ireland, after an interval of seventeen days 
and was in Liverpool on the 8th of May. 

" May lOfA. — Being determined to get home as speedily as pos- 
sible, I took a place in the Express coach, and set off from Liver- 
pool. I did not perceive till we reached Warrington, that we had 
nine convicts, five in one chain and four in another, on the head of 



Oi-^ MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS 

the coach, accompanied by two keepers. They had been con- 
victed of various offences, and were sent from Lancaster to London, 
in order for transportation. Had I known of it in time, to have 
travelled with this company no man could have persuaded me ; 
their manacled hands and fettered legs were a dismal sight to me. 
and the sound of their rattling chains was not only new to my 
ears, but produced sensations of the most painful nature to my 
mind. They suffered much in getting up and down, off and on 
the coach, and were their punishment to extend no farther than 
what they endured on this journey, I am sure their sin was dearly 
bought." Dr. Clarke, however, reached Hay don Hall on tiie 1 2th 
May, and was thankful to find his family in good health. 

It is not to be supposed that Dr. Clarke could make a purchase 
of any dwelling-house in the sister kingdom, without alarming his 
English friends that he purposed leaving England as a place of 
residence. But all his children were settled here, and it is not to 
be supposed that the love of country alone could prevail over the 
strength of parental feeling: the report, however, became generally 
circulated. That he was attached to Ireland as the place of his 
birth, and that he loved and admired the genius and character of 
the Irish people, is very certain; but his long residence in England — 
his family relationships — his most endeared friendships were all 
here; — all, indeed, but those indescribable early associations which 
every good mind feels, and dwells on with enthusiastic devotion. 

The Wesleyan Annual Conference for 1830, w^as held at Leeds, 
and attended by Dr. Clarke. One of the principal subjects that 
came under consideration, was that of Negro Slavery, and the fol- 
lowing resolution was adopted — " The Conference, taking into 
consideration the laudable efforts that are now making to impress 
the public with a due sense of the injustice and inhumanity of con- 
tinuing that system of slavery, which exists in many of the colo- 
nies of the British Crown, invites a general application to parlia- 
ment, by petition, that such measures may in its wisdom be adop- 
ted as shall speedily lead to the universal termination of the 
wrongs inflicted on so large a portion of our fellow men." The 
Conference entered warmly into this subject, and drew up several 
strong resolutions, enforcing the determined opposition of the me- 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 6l3 



thodist body to the nefarious system of slavery ; not only pledging^ 
themselves as ministers, as far as their power and influence ex- 
tended, but exhorting their individual and collective members to 
join cordially in withstanding its longer continuance ; and in all 
this Dr. Clarke took a leading part. When the resolutions were 
])repared, he transmitted a copy of them to Mr. Wilberforce, who 
wrote him on the 17th of August 1830, to the following effect : — 
" I return you many thanks for your kind and highly gratifying- 
communication. The 'resolutions' are truly excellent; and I re- 
joice that the cause of the poor slaves will be so zealously pleaded 
for by your numerous congregations. With what insane, as well 
as wicked bitterness, are those most respectable men, who are de- 
voting themselves as missionaries to the service of God among the 
poor slaves in Jamaica, persecuted by the legislature of that island. 
In complaining of this ill-usage, it would surely be useful to bring- 
forward the testimony which has been borne to their disinterested 
beneficence, and to the effects of their labours, in several of the 
other West India islands. I remember many instances of this 
kind were mentioned by Mr. Richard Watson, in his excellent an- 
swer to Mr. Joseph Marryatt, some years ago." 

Dr. Clarke's indefatigable exertions in behalf of the Shetland 
islands, prompted one of his friends in Ireland, to address him 
pointedly in behalf of poor benighted Ireland. " If," said this 
gentleman, " you would come to the help of Ireland, as you have 
done to Shetland, what good might not be effected !" Dr. Clarke, 
in a letter dated September 30th, 1830, thus responded to the ob- 
servation : — " Here am I, send me ! On the face of the earth, there 
stands not a man more willing to add Ireland to Shetland, and 
serve both with all his heart and strength." 

Here then was a new field opened up to his view, for the exer- 
cise of his benevolence ; and accordingly he lost no time in writing 
to the Rev. Samuel Harpur, at Coleraine, to inquire the state and 
wants of the populous districts round that town ; and finding that 
there was a great want of schools and teachers. Dr. Clarke took 
up the subject with his wonted ardour of mind. He entreated 
Mr. H. to endeavour to the utmost of his power to ascertain the 
most eligible districts lor establishing schools ; and then to look 



6lJj MEMOIRS Of THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

oat for men suitable in all respects to be employed as teachers. 
He urged upon him the propriety of going himself and canvassing 
the whole of the district, and examine how many there were who 
would welcome the establishment of a free or charity school among 
themselves as a blessing, and a thing to be desired, and who would 
avail themselves of it in reference to the benefit of their children. 
This was done, and the whole country seemed to come forvvard to 
hail the appearance of such a school. Dr. Clarke then drew up 
a plan in writing, laid down a number of plain and simple rules 
for the admission and continuance of scholars, and the best mode 
of furnishing the necessary instruction, and having remitted a sum 
of money for initial expences, he entreated his friend Harpur to 
commence without delay. 

On January \st, 1831, the first school was opened with thirty 
pupils, under an excellent teacher — and in a little time the scholars 
were increased to sixty — then to ninety — and in the space of three 
months its increase was amazing ! As soon as the mildness of the 
weather would permit him to take the journey. Dr. Clarke lost no 
time in setting out on his visit of inspection to the Irish schools. 
For this purpose he left London on the 24th March, 1831, and 
proceeding by way of Stafford, Burslem, &c. he made collections 
for the support of his Irish schools, and reached Liverpool on Sa- 
turday April 2nd where he preached on the following day, being 
Easter Sunday. Here he waited some days in order to get a com- 
panion for his journey ; and on April the 8th, in conjunction with 
his friend F. H. Holdcroft, Esq. proceeded by the Chieftain, 
steamer, on his way to Belfast, where he lauded safely on the fol- 
lowing day after a passage of seventeen hours. 

After preaching in Donegal Square, to a noble congregation," 
by which we presume, is not meant a congregation of the nobility. 
Dr. Clarke and. his friend proceeded through Antrim and Cole- 
raine to Port Stuart and Port Rush, in order to examine the state 
of the schools at the latter place ; and arriving on the 13th April, 
his satisfaction was complete. " I have scarcely ever seen a sight 
more lovely," are his own words. He found fourscore children, 
half boys and half girls, all miserably poor, and only half clothed, 
yet all quite clean, and even their bare feet and legs clean also 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



615 



They manifested the utmost decorum of behaviour, "thus stran:];ely 
changed in their conduct, spirit, and habits," and from conversing 
with some of the principal inhabitants of the place, Dr. Clarke 
obtained the strongest testimony of the great good already pro- 
duced by this school, not solely among the children, but their 
parents also. 

"April 14. — We set off again this morning in another of those 
wretched vehicles, called jaunting-cars, to visit the schools in the 
Hill Countrij, in tlie upper part of the parish of Mocosquin, to a 
place called Cashel, where a school for the poor is just commenced 
Here are seventy-five children, half boys and half girls, and not 
one pair of shoes among the whole. Though the school is but re- 
cently begun, the children are in fine order, and promise exceed- 
ingly well ; their ages may average seven years. The aspect of 
the country would almost affright one ; the most bleak and wild 
that can be imagined. Never did Charity sit down in the form of 
an instructress, more in h^r own character than in this waste. My 
visit to this school was wholly unexpected ; but I found the great- 
est order on entering the place, each boy and girl conning its les- 
son in silence. There are 108 now on the books — mostly protes- 
tants — not more than ten of popish parents. The master gave me 
a good account of the progress of the children, both in moral de- 
portment and learning. The plan of opening the schools is this : 
the day previously to that appointed for the purpose, the children 
get warning of it, and the parents and children assemble, some- 
times in a barn, or, if fine, in the open air, under the shelter of a 
hawthorn hedge. The intense interest of all on these occasions is 
wonderful ; and the gentry offered with zeal and rivalship, land or 
houses on their estates, in the recesses of the bogs and mountains, 
scarcely indeed accessible, owing to the bad roads, but still swarm- 
ing with a vast population of children, who, on announcement, 
come pouring down the hills: the parents were all on my right 
hand, the children on my left, and I then gave them an impressive 
address for half an hour, sung, prayed with and for them, and 
blessed them. I felt that the whole scene was impressive, and eJI 
present seemed deeply interested." 

Dr. Clarke continued in Ireland, on this occasion, till near the 



016 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

end of May, inspecting the schools already instituted, inquiring 
after the most suitable stations for establishing others, sending out 
pioneers to procure information, selecting the most suitable teach- 
ers, and, as far as possible, perfecting his scheme of benevolence. 
Labouring incessantly as he did, to lessen the sum of human 
wretchedness, and ameliorate the condition of his fellow creatures, 
at a time of life, too, when exhausted nature sighs for repose, one 
cannot be surprised at meeting with such passages as the follow- 
ing, in his journal. 

Port Stuart, April 27th. — Being almost worn out with conti- 
nual travelling and labour^ and being in indifferent health, I pur- 
pose to spend this day in the sea-breezes : but I feel that one day 
can advantage me but little. I must have rest : and in order to 
this I must retire from the scene of labour. My youthful days 
were spent in labour ; my manhood in hard and incessant toil ; 
and now my old age is consuming fast away in travail and care ; 
and where care is unavoidably crowned with anxiety, the taper of 
life must soon sink into the socket. An active mind will ever say, 
say, * better wear out than rust out,' but there is a difference be- 
tween wear out and grind out; the one implies regular though 
continued labour, the other extra employment and violent exer- 
cise. When I look back upon my three-score and ten years, I 
must say I find little wearing ; all has been grinding with me : 
strong attrition has acted on every part, and my candle has been 
lighted at both ends. Under the blessing of God, I have been the 
former of my own fortune. I have never been importunate for 
wealth or favour ; I have not been tioublesome to any ; I have not 
eaten my bread for nought, nor have I eaten my morsel alone. 
Often have the necessities of others fallen upon me, and strangely 
has God supported me under them. The Lord knoweth the way 
that I take, and when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as 
gold ; only speak thou the word, and thy servant shall live!" 

The following extract from the good Doctor's journal is of a 
different complexion: but it is so very characteristic of the man, 
that 1 cannot resist the temptation to introduce it into these pages, 
hoping it will not be overlooked by the female portion of my 
readers 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL.D., F. A. S, 



617 



" April 28. — I have returned to Coleraine, and as I could not 
rest, I rose at four this morning, weary, indisposed, and sleepless ; 
and having- many important letters to write, must spend the day in 
an employment seldom profitable to the writer. Formerly I could 
bear much cold in my head, but now a very little affects me. I 
could ill preach out of doors now, though the last time I was offi- 
cially in Ireland, I preached often abroad, and in one week not 
less than four times ; but though my head, through old age, has 
lost much of its once thick covering, yet I am thankful to God 
that I am thus far saved from the necessity of submitting to — shall 
1 call it the disgrace of ladies and gentlemen ? — the false covering 
of human hair, whether plucked from the peaceful dead — exhumed 
by the fell resurrection men — cropped from the skull of the robber 
on the high seas, who has been gibbeted for the terror of his coun- 
try — shorne from the head of the murderer, lately hanged, and 
whose body has been delivered to the surgeons — or clipped by the 
field plunderers from the heads of the French, Austrians, Hessians, 
Russians, Turks and infidels; for in hair obtained from all such 
skulls, do the ladies of England and Ireland, as well as the gen- 
tlemen of both countries, dress their heads. Do the ladies ever 
reflect whence their wigs come ? When I was a little boy in the 
last century, all wore their own hair, of whatever hue, and to all 
that hair was an ornament." 

After an absence of two months and one week. Dr. Clarke 
landed at Liverpool, about noon, on AVhitsunday, May 22nd, hav- 
ing established six schools in his native country, independent of 
the Wesleyan Missionary Society. It was the child of his old age, 
and he cherished it fondly ; but it proved a source of jealousy and 
distrust, and embittered the remainder of his days. The com- 
mittee for conducting the Wesleyan missions took umbrage at his 
having acted in the matter independent of the general body to 
which he belonged, and, to bear their testimony against such a 
mode of proceeding, shortly after his return home, he was presented 
with a copy of the following document. 

" Resolution of the Methodist Missionary Committee, 77, Hatton 
Garden, June 8tli, 1831 

" It having been stated that Di. Clarke has established schools 

.J. K 



6l8 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MIiNlSTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



in Ireland, and is making applications for their support to various 
friends, the committee cannot but regret that, as schools in Ireland 
are carried on under its direction, and may at any time be ex- 
tended by the increase of its funds, a separate application should 
be made to our friends for the support of separate missionary 
schools in that country, without any authority or consultation. 
They therefore request the conference to consider the case, and 
advise accordingly. 

(Signed) James Townley.'' 

That such a communication should produce in the breast of Dr. 
Clarke, uneasiness, chagrin, and perhaps irritation, cannot excite 
surprise; and the following letter shows how keenly he felt on the 
occasion. 

Eastcott, near Pinner j June Wth, 1S31. 

" Dear Dr. Townley, 

" If, before you had so strangely undertaken to direct 'the 
conference to advise you' what to do to or with me, for having 
' established separate mission schools in Ireland, and made appli- 
cation to several of our friends for their support,' you had taken 
any pains to inquire as to the facts you have stated, you would 
never have formed the resolution you have just sent to me. Your 
whole foundation is either perfectly false, or misconceived; and 
you would have seen that, far from having cause of ' regret,' you 
would have found that you had cause to thank God that your long 
tried, faithful old servant was not yet dead, but was, with a me- 
thodist heart, doing a methodist work, to God's glory, and the 
good of those for whom in your official capacity, you also labour. 

Yours truly, 

Adam Clarke." 

This little misunderstanding, not to say bickering, is to be re- 
gretted, and especially as it led to others which produced some- 
thing like irritation in the calm and placid breast of the worthy 
doctor, but ■ 

** Non nobis est tantas componere litea " 
Dr. Clarke abated nothing of his zeal and labour for the support 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. 3. 



619 



of his six Irish schools during the remainder of his days in this 
world, which was little more than a year ; and, since his death, a 
proposal was made to the Wesleyan Missionary Committee to re- 
ceive them on their establishment, which was gladly acceded to. 
See the Methodist Magazine, July 1S33, p. 529. 

In the support of these Irish schools. Dr. Clarke had found a 
liberal and most efficient patroness in the Honourable Miss Sophia 
Ward, who, in addition to what she had already done for them, and 
also for the Shetland ^Mission, now wrote to him to say, that she 
purposed a more liberal donation, and asking some advice on the 
subject. Anxious to avoid giving any cause of uneasiness to his 
brethren, and that his good might not be evil spoken of, he ad- 
dressed to that lady the following letter. 

Hay don Hall, June 17 th, 1831. 

** Dear Madam, 

" I acknowledge your letter with gratitude to God and to 
you : for though your work of charity will increase my labour and 
care, yet as this comes in the way of my duty to God and man, 
I am more than thankful to be thus employed. In reference to 
the method in which it will be best to dispose of your noble gift of 
£400 for Shetland, I would just observe, that if we had not got 
places of worship built for the poor Shetlanders, we could have 
made no moral progress among them ; and when I am gone, to 
have something in store to meet the necessary repairs, alterations, 
&c. will be a great mercy to those already in existence, to say no- 
thing of any others. If, therefore, as you propose, you transmit 
the cash, I can, I know, get it securely vested for this purpose. 

" Now, as to the proposed help for the Irish schools, on which 
you are pleased to consult me, I would just say, having first most 
gratefully thanked you for your noble donation of £100 tow^ards 
them, that in and from the beginning, we proposed to establish 
schools where literally there were none ; and where none of the 
charitable societies — Hibernian, Baptist, Kildare place, or Metho- 
dist Missions — had made any attempt, or, as far as we could learn, 
were intending to make any, in the places I have already selected ; 
and which I have known for three-score years ; and in which I 



620 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS^ 

ministered at an early period of my life. In six of such desolate 
places, we have, with God's especial blessing, established schools, 
containing about 700 children ; and we have christian teachers 
well qualified to instruct the children, and teach their parents the 
way of salvation. These, then, are additions to what has been 
done by others; for these additions I have spoken with great cau- 
tion and delicacy, so much so as not to have made any general 
application for funds ; and in every case refused to take any thing 
which was accustomed to be given to other charities. I knew the 
methodists were doing all they could ; but still many places must 
have been passed by for want of funds and other help ; and I was 
determined not to take one penny for our schools which would 
have been given to them ; and I would, my dear madam, say with 
all gratitude, that if you had destined any of that money which 
you have now kindly given to our desolate ones, why then, in 
God's name, let it go to its first destination ; for, you know, it is 
an essential principle in our schools, that they shall be supplemen- 
tary to all others — that both they, and the sources of their support 
shall be all supplementary : very careful have I been in this res- 
pect, lest there should be any cause of jealousy in this good work ; 
and I have been glad when any subscription has been given me, 
that I might carry it especially to the methodist missionary schools; 
and would you believe it, my dear madam, that in all the work T 
have been doing, and in all I am planning, I have but three per- 
sons who give me any thing towards this work; and one of them 
is the Hon. Miss Sophia Ward I 

" God, in his mercy, has given me influence ; this is every where 
felt, and strangely opens my way in every place. It causes many 
who would, in ordinary cases, not be friendly to the work, to 
give me their countenance, and afterwards their hands, to assist in 
building scliool-houses. In Ireland, this influence is farther neces- 
sary; and if God restore my health in any tolerable measure, I 
must return there for a short season. 

"My own eyes tell me that I am probably distressing yours. 
I cannot help it : you are one of my three benefactors and coun- 
se lors in this work. Under God, I am your agent, &c. &c. 

Adam Clarke." 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, IL.D., F. A. S. G2l 

In pursuance of his plan and projected purpose. Dr. Clarke left 
home for Liverpool, on his way to Ireland, about the middle of 
August 1831, but, from a letter addressed to the Rev. Mr. Harpur, 
dated Liverpool, August 19, it appears that he proceeded no fur- 
ther at that time, on his journey. " The weather," says he, " has 
become tremendous during the night before last ; so that when I 
arrived in Liverpool, I found a great part of the town had been 
inundated by the excessive floods. The gale increased last night, 
and this morning there is a hurricane. A steam packet, the 
" Rothsay Castle," went out with 150 passengers: she has perished, 
and out of that immense number they fear that not thirty lives are 
saved. The friends I expected to accompany me have all been 
taken ill and cannot go : so here I am alone, with no prospect of 
getting off, unless I go to sea in a storm : added to this, every one 
of my friends have earnestly counselled me not to proceed : be- 
cause, 1st, in my state of health it would be imprudent to go alone : 
2nd, If my wife hear of the loss of the Rothsay Castle, she will be 
alarmed to death for my personal safety, before she can get a let- 
ter from me ; and the public papers will tell her of the loss, and 
the damage among the shipping ; and though she will take it for 
granted that I should not have been in the wrecked vessel, yet that 
I must have been at sea, in the same weather, and on the same 
coast. Hence all conclude that I should take the first coach this 
afternoon, and carry the news myself. Some of my friends, who 
know that when I set out on a journey, I rarely stop till I get to 
the end, have been so distressed with apprehensions for my sifety, 
in consequence of the storm of yesterday, that they could not sleep 
all night. I crossed the Mersey in a steam packet this morning, 
and saw a most tremendous sea in the offing. 

"Well, I have concluded, all circumstances being weighed, (past 
counsel, past grace) that I must put my helm a-lee, and seek provi- 
dential direction on another tack. Should I persist now to go, 
and any calamity ensue, it would be useless to say, ^ all his friends 
did what they could to dissuade him from his purpose, but in vain.' 
The following is a case in the late fearful wreck : a mother, with 
ten of her family, were going in the Rothsay Castle, the greater 
number had already got on board j the mother felt an uncommon 



622 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

qualm, and suddenly said, ' I will not go, let us not go." About 
three of the others seemed to feel with her, and immediately stepped 
on shore. Before the others could well reflect, the vessel loosed 
her paddles and was off! So the few living have to deplore the 
many dead I 

" Yesterday I received your letter, and am pleased to hear so 
good an account of the schools. Now, my dear Harpur, I see that 
in the present case God has evidently put you in my stead. I pray 
that his hand may be upon you for good. See that sound teaching 
and sound discipline go hand in hand. Let the masters be faith- 
ful and diligent, let them, as local preachers, be under, and at the 
command of, the Coleraine superintendant, and consult him in 
every case that concerns him and his work, and themselves and 
their work as local preachers ; at the same time, let him have the 
chief superintendence in the schools, and treat the masters with 
consideration and affection, and be loving to the children. I will 
work while God spares me, and go on. I have not long to live, 
bot I will endeavour to live for God's cause, and for his cause in 
Ireland. May God prosper you in all things, and particularly in 
your new circuit. 

Adam Clarke." 
It was at this late period of life that a distressing misunderstand- 
ing arose between Dr. Clarke and the committee for regulating the 
preachers' stations. The Doctor was at this time stationed on the 
Hinde Street circuit, where his labours were so acceptable to the 
people, that they wished him to continue with them a longer time 
than comported with the methodist regulations on such a topic : 
the consequence of which was, that had he yielded to their partiali- 
ties, he must have become what is termed a " supernumerary," or 
one who had passed the regular labours of the itinerant plan, and 
so, though not shut out of the ministry, yet not as heretofore in 
the ranks. Dr. Clarke had a strong objection to this, and when 
speaking on the subject, frequently expressed his wish that it might 
please God that he should " cease at once to work and live." In 
his own opinion he was still strong to labour, his heart warm to 
action, and consequently the description of a " supernumerary 
could not, and should not, in propriety, apply to him. 



OF THE REV, ADAM CLARKE, LL.D., F, A. S. 



623 



The Annual Meeting of Conference vras now at hand, and dur- 
ing the sittings of what is termed the Stationing Committee, which 
immediately precedes the Conference, and whose office it is to 
make out the respective removals and appointments of the itinerant 
preachers, subject to the consideration and final decision of the 
Conference, the following letter regarding this subject was ad- 
dressed to him from Bristol, where the Conference was held that 
year. 

" Dear Brother, 

" The friends in the Hinde Street circuit, have sent a strong 
request for you to be put down for their circuit, stating that they 
have reason to believe that some arrangement might be made, that 
they still may be favoured with your valuable ministry. Not hav- 
ing any directions from you respecting your wishes, you are at 
present appointed as supernumerary to that circuit. Please to in- 
form me if you wish it to be altered, or what are your particular 
wishes on the subject of your a pointment, &c. 

July 20th, 1831 G. Marsden." 

To this communication. Dr. Clarke answered as follows : — 

Bayswater, near London, July 24. 

" My dear brother Marsden, 

" I do not tind it easy to answer your letter. All I ever 
said to my good friends at Hinde Street, was this — * Were I to be- 
come a supernumerary this year, I would not prefer any circuit ia 
London, to that in which I am.' 1 am not clear that I should be- 
come a supernumerary this year, but that I must leave with my 
brethren. I did not go out of my own accord, I dreaded the call, 
and I obeyed through much fear and trembling, not daring to re- 
fuse, because I felt the hand of God mighty upon me. I knew the 
case of Jonah, and feared the transactions of Tarshish. / will not 
therefore set myself down, for though I cannot do full work, yet I 
can do some. I was a local preacher when called out ; I am not 
called to degrade, in order to read for a higher title than that which 
I have; and a Levite past labour becomes a counsellor, but never 
enters into the ranks of the Nethinim. 1 I had for some years 
thought of finishing where I began, though that circuit is now di- 



MEMOIRS OF THE MFE, MIN13TRY, AND WRITINGS. 



vided into four or six; or in that circuit where the word of the 
liOrd first came unto me, and where I found the salvation of God 
that bought me ! In that circuit I have been endeavouring- to 
raise up circuit schools — not mission schools, as has been reported 
by those who should have known better, but schools in places 
where no kind of instruction was afforded to the many hundreds of 
totally neglected wretched cliildren, who, with their paresits, were 
without the words of salvation — to help the circuits in those places, 
and to help the preachers in large districts where they had not half 
strength to enter doors sufficiently opened ; and I have prevailed 
by means of men full of faith and the Holy Ghost, and who, in 
their disengaged hours, are put totally under the direction of the 
superintendant, to be employed where and when he pleases, and 
who have already been a sovereign blessing to the places where 
they are teaching little children, and bringing their parents and 
neighbours to Christ. If no place is open for me here (though I 
might demand, I will not) I shall rather travel in the keen blasts, 
over the mountains, hills and bogs of Derry and Antrim, than set 
myself down as a supernumerary in any place In Immanuel's land, 
even in its whole length and breadth, at least for the present year. 

Hitherto, tliese schools and local preachers have not cost one 
farthing to any fund or institution among the raethodists, nor ever 
shall while I have any thing to do with them. I hope, from the 
kindness, not of 'our friends ' but of my friends, to be able to put 
something into the hands of the Conference to help these schools, 
when my voice can be heard no more on the mountains of Ireland ; 
and when my plans are ri])e, I shall get the Conference to appoint 
those for trustees in whom they have confidence, and who will be 
faithful in God's house. So much is my strength brought down 
by my three or four months labour in Ireland, and also in different 
parts in England, besides Cheshire, Lancashire, and Yorkshire, 
that I do not think I could comfortably, or without further injury 
to my health, bear the confinement of Conference this year." 

" I am, &c. 

" Adam Clarke." 
It might naturally have been expected, that, in favour of one who 
had done so much for methodism and the methodists whose life 



OF THE REV, ADAM CLARKK, LL. D., F.A.S. 625 

and labours had been devoted to their service, the Wesleyan Con- 
ference would have been prompt to consult his feelings, and hailed 
the opportunity which was now afforded them of relaxing to the 
utmost stretch of their delegated power to meet his wishes. But 
the case was not exactly so ; for, notwithstanding the Doctor- had 
plainly evinced his wish in the letter to Mr. G. Marsden, and that 
long before the time for concluding the stations had arrived, his 
wishes were not attended to, and he continued to be placed on the 
supernumerary list. This proceeding did not pass without remon- 
strance, however, from some of Dr. Clarke's friends ; and in parti- 
cular Mr. Joseph Beaumbnt, a gentleman of considerable spirit 
and influence, took it up warmly, and at the next meeting of Con- 
ference (1832) which was held at Liverpool, proceeded thither to 
remonstrate with " the high and mighty lords," which he did, not 
wholly without effect; for though they passed a vote of censure on 
his conduct for having interfered irregularly, he so far succeeded 
in his object, as to procure a revisal of their steps and a peace- 
offering to the Doctor. A mystification, however, has hitherto 
hung over the matter ; Mr. Marsden was called upon for an ex- 
planation, but he is said to have made an awkward attempt to ex- 
culpate both himself and the Conference. It would seem from 
what has since transpired, that he suppressed Dr. Clarke's expos- 
tulatory letter or letters, though being addressed to him in his 
official capacity, they were of course, intended to be laid before 
Conference. On the charge that the Doctor was put down as a 
supernumerary, in opposition to hib own remonstrances, Mr. Mars- 
den contented himself with stating that when a letter was sent to 
Dr. Clarke on the subject of his appointment, the latter evidently 
left it to the Conference to determine the point — saying in his 
reply, " I am not clear that I should become a supernumerary this 
year, but this I must leave with my brethren** But though this be 
true, and though Dr. Clarke professedly deferred to the opinion of 
his brethren, yet his letter contains numerous intimations too ex- 
plicit to be mistaken by an unprejudiced mind, that he was averse 
to being then placed on the list of supernumeraries, and had his 
letter been submitted to Conference, his wishes could not have 
been matter of dispute. He looked upon the decision in the light 
of a degradation, and his feelings were wounded. If indeed any 

5 L 



626 MEAfOmS OF THE LIFE. MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

doubt could reasonably be entertained on this head, it must be dis- 
sipated by the contents of the following letter, which he wrote to 
one of his brethren, the Rev. John Lewis, of Shepton Mallet in, 
Somersetshire. 

My dear brother Lewis : — I thank you for your letter and for 
the information it imparts. I feel that I have been ill-used in that 
work which God called me to, and which Mr. Wesley with his own 
hands confirmed me in, — by their setting me down for a supernume- 
rary against remonstrances made to the president himself, Mr. G. 
Marsden. When 1 found how it was, without opening the paper con- 
taining the usual annuity given to the superannuated preachers, on 
their becoming such, I returned it immediately, and told Mr. Stanley 
not to enter my name on the next preachers' plan. 

" Though therefore, I conceive I have no appointment, indeed a 
Supernumerary properly has none, I go preaching about whenever 
they call me to work for their charities. — You see, therefore, that 
though I am hurt, I have not taken that offence which causes me 
to stumble. My time is nearly done : — I have worked hard, borne 
many privations, and suffered much hardship, for more than half 
a century, and was still willing to work ; and as I could still work 
with the same energy and effect — for God continued to own my 
word — it was not well to throw me thus far beyond the working 
pale ! God is righteous and my soul bows before him." 

During this interval of respite from stated labours. Dr. Clarke 
was far from wasting his hours in inglorious ease. The calls upon 
him to preach " Occasional Sermons," were so far from being dimi- 
nished that they rather multiplied upon his hands. He, however, 
began to feel it an irksome task to be incessantly goading his 
hearers to liberality ; and though he knew not how to refuse the 
pressing solicitations of his friends, he would sometimes remark to 
his family, " I am really tired and ashamed of this constant system 
of begging : it taxes heavily many of my friends, who will follow 
me from chapel to chapel, and I have now rarely the opportunity 
of preaching the word of life, free, without the perpetual horse- 
leech cry. Give ! — Give !" 

Dr. Clarke was not the first to find out the annoyance here com- 
plained of. Almost from the commencement of Missionary, Tract, 
and School Societies this has been a growing evil, and one that 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL.D., F. A. S. 627 

has forcibly struck reflecting minds. "The preachers in London/ 
said the late Robert Hall, nearly twenty years ago, "have only one 
text for their Sermons, and that is ' Give us MoneyV Happily it is 
an evil that must in time cure itself. Many preachers have been 
in the habit of lending themselves out to hire for services of this kind, 
and some of them, for a time, made a good thing of it, They had 
their plan and their rules for filling the place, and not a little of the 
wisdom of the serpent was displayed therein. Failures, doubtless, 
occurred occasionally ; as when, for instance, a celebrated Doctor 
in Divinity contracted to preach a charity sermon at Greenwich, at 
the price of a Guinea and his coach hire. What the sum expended 
in advertising &c amounted to I know not, but the glass coach and 
preacher's fee was twenty-six shillings — the collection was just six- 
teen shillings 1" We may with certainty conclude that Dr. Clarke 
never lent himself to a system of this sort — every vibration of his 
benevolent heart would have recoiled at it. 

The closing part of the year 1831, was occupied by Dr. Clarke 
in collecting and arranging materials for an extended Memoir of 
the Wesley Family — on which subject he had ushered into the 
world a brief account, in the year 1823. Falling in with a lady. 
Miss E. T. Tooth, who had devoted much of her time and attention 
to it, he solicited her assistance in the matter, with which request she 
cheerfully complied. In one of his letters to her, dated November 
1831, he thus writes. *'I shall be glad to be furnished with any 
information you can obtain respecting the mysterious disappear- 
ance of Mr. Annesley, of Surat ; any thing which concerns the 
Wesley family, or any of its collateral connections, interests me^ 
I have greatly improved and enlarged ' The Memoirs of the Wesley 
Family,* having prepared it for a Second edition." 

" I heartily thank you for the papers you sent me ; which came to 
my hand last night ; as yet it appears that the story about Annesley, 
from Surat, has no foundation on which I can trust : — without 
dates it is without all evidence, unless time, place, and consequence 
agree. 1 shall be glad to have any thing farther concerning the 
Lamberts. You will not be displeased to hear that I have hunted 
up the whole of the male and female children of the Rector of 
Epworth and his excellent wife. If possible I should like to leave 
the Wesley Family as perfect as the remains of the records of time, with 



628 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFK, MiNlSTUY, AND WRITINGS, 

my utmost industry can make it. What you can help me in, do ; 
and God's blessing be upon you, for I have worked hard to rescue 
the family from total oblivion," 

Again, writing to the same lady, under date of November 7th, 
he says, " For the great pains you have taken to furnish me with 
the papers which I received last evening, I feel exceedingly 
obliged, and far more than what is ordinarily called thankful, and 
had I a stronger word I would heartily use it, and add, there is 
more feeling behind. 

When Conference appointed me to write the life of Rev. John 
Wesley, I had gone a good way in those collections which after- 
wards constituted a part of 'The Memoir of the Wesley Family I' 
That work I then gave to the Conference, and when I had interleaved 
the printed Memoir with large quarto paper in three volumes, and 
filled up every page with new matter, I offered it to the Book 
Committee to be sent to press as soon as they pleased, and was 
indeed surprised after several weeks delay, to receive officially the 
€i7ie die adjournment of the business. Those three interleaved 
volumes are still in my hand, and 1 suppose I shall let them rest 
where they are. There are only two alive who had the high pri- 
vilege of an intimate acquaintance with Mr. Wesley — those atre 
Henry Moore, and Adam Clarke. My services would have been 
at the disposal of the Conference to have written his Life, but some 
papers were otherwise lodged which I was informed were neces- 
sary to its full and proper execution : these I sought but could 
not obtain, and I could not wiite it without them ; and now I am 
informed Mr. Moore is bringing out a volume. As he long knew 
Mr. Wesley, he is every way qualified to write a 'Standard Life. 
For a man who has never seen, and never known Mr. Wesley, nor 
Been nor felt'the spirit or the modus operandi of original Methodism, 
to write a Standard Life of that extraordinary man for the Metho- 
dists, would be a strange work, however wise and clever the writer 
might be." 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, I.L. I)., F. 4. S. 629 



SECTION XXIV. 

Some account of Dr. Clarke s last days. — Is called to mourn the lo?s 
of several intimate friends. — Baynes, Scott, Roberts. — He attends the 
levee of the Duke of Sussex. — Visits Ireland for the last time. — 
I J is illness J death, and funeral, a.d. 1832. 

The stream of time has now brought us to the commencement of 
the last year of Dr. Clarke's life and labours — the days of the years 
of his pilgrimage, — and it opened upon him very inauspiciously, by the 
illness and death of some of his old and valued friends. The first 
of these was the late Mr. William Baynes, the well known bookseller, 
of Paternoster row, whom Dr. Clarke regarded as " the best old 
bookseller in London." Being apprised of Mr. Baynes's illness 
and apparently approaching end, and that he was desirous of see- 
ing Dr. Clarke once more, the latter hastened to town on the 6tli 
of January when the interview took place, and remained there all 
night in order to have an opportunity of repeating his visit next 
morning. He had the satisfaction of finding his old friend per- 
fectly composed and collected, expressing his strong confidence 
and peace in God. " It deeply aflfected me," says the Doctor, " to 
see the strong man thus bound : for death will never quit his hold 
on him. I prayed with him, and for him, and for his family ; and 
then was obliged to bid him farewell, as I was anxious to get home 
that afternoon." 

Returning home from the house of mourning Dr. Clarke had a 
narrow escape with his own life ; the circumstances attending 
which arc thus narrated by himself in a letter to his daughter. " I 
took the Pinner coach at four o'clock — it was dark and foggy, and 
the man had no lamps. 1 was apprehensive of danger, for we 
were full outside, and bad five instead of four within. A little 
short of the ' Swan ' he overturned the coach, projected all the 
outsides and luggage into the ditch, broke the pole in two, smashed 
the windows, and I think stove in the side of the coach. I suppose 
I lay ten minutes, with three persons on the top of me, before they 
could get us out. I was only bruised a little on my right shoulder : 
but sadly trampled on while I lay in the coach, and then had to 
stand about an hour, in the rain from above and the mud below. 



630 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

before I could get away. I then took my bag and walked over the 
hill to Harrow, knocked at a house, but was refused admittance, 
though I gave my name. This horrible burking business makes 
every one afraid of being murdered ! I proceeded on foot to Pinner 
and when I got there I was so poorly, that the people of the inn 
treated me with much kindness : the master yoked his gig, put me 
m, and himself drove me home." 

To one who had attained the age of three-score years and ten, 
these were sore disasters, and must have been felt as such by 
younger persons ; but they did not terminate here. On the follow- 
ing morning Dr. Clarke received a letter from his old and valued 
friend Robert Scott Esq. of Pensford, near Bristol, and another 
from Mrs. Scott, by the same post, entreating him to pay them a 
visit without delay, as the life of the former hung in doubt, and he 
was particularly solicitous to see the Doctor before he went henc© 
and was seen no more. Mr. Scott had been a munificent benefac- 
tor to the Shetland Mission — its firmest friend and supporter. 
From the commencement of the undertaking he gave invariably one 
hundred pounds a year for the support of the Missionaries in those 
islands, and ten pounds towards the building of every new chapel, 
besides occasional aids. We cannot, therefore wonder that Dr. 
Clarke should fly to meet the wishes of such a man. He instantly 
sent to town to engage a place in the Bristol coach, and on the 
following morning set out on his journey to Pensford, which he 
reached in safety, and found his friend somewhat revived after a fit 
of the gout in his stomach. But unhappily the suppression of one 
disease was only introductory to another : the gout was followed 
by dropsy — death had seized its prey, and Mr. Scott did not sur- 
vive many days ; he died on the 21st of January, full of confidence 
of his personal interest in the favour of God. 

The account which Dr. Clarke transmitted from Pensford, at 
the moment of the last few days, and particularly of the closing 
scene of Mr. Scott's life is too remarkable to be passed over has- 
tily. On the 17th of January, four days prior to his dissolution, 
the Doctor thus describes his state : " Happy, incessantly happy 1 
possessing the strongest confidence, with the clearest testimony of 
full and present redemption through the blood of the Lamb. He 
expresses his own state in that old verse : — 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE. LL.D.. F. A. S. 631 

Not a cloud doth arise 
To darken the skies, 
Or hide for a moment 
My God from my eyes. 

His prayers are turned into praises : he does not feel a want which 
God does not supply : Christ dwells in his heart by faith, and fills 
his whole soul : his language is constant praise, expressing at once 
the deepest gratitude for the unmerited favours of his God, and the 
highest astonishment at the exuberant goodness of the divine 
nature : he speaks of Him as an unlimited Fountain of Eternal love, 
manifested in incessant streams of mercy to mankind : and he 
speaks also wonderful things concerning the perfections of God." 
His death is thus described. 

"January 2\st. — At half past ten this evening, Mr. Scott chang- 
ed mortality for life ; such a death I never witnessed. We had 
prayed to God to give him an easy passage, and we did not pray 
iu vain, for he had one of the most placid, and easiest 1 have ever 
heard of or seen : his wife, and several of the relatives, and myself, 
were kneeling around his bed, I offering the departing prayer, and 
after it, having just time to rise from my knees, go to him, lay my 
hands on his head, and pronounce the blessing of Aaron on the 
Israelites, Numbers vi. 24. — ' The Lord bless thee and keep thee : 
the Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto 
thee : the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee 
peace' — when his last breath went forth. Scarcely any one shed 
tears, the victory over death was so evident and so "^complete, every 
heart was absorbed in heavenly feeling. Thus, in the eighty-fifth 
year of his age, died this undeviating Friend of Shetland. 1 would 
not have missed this sight for a great deal 1 I seem to have come 
here in order to learn to die." 

Of the desirableness of such a tranquil departure out of this 
world into the eternal state there can be but one opinion : who 
does not covet it .? wicked as was Balaam, the son of Bosor, who 
loved the wages of unrighteousness," he coveted such a death : 
" Let me die the death of the righteous," was his devout aspira- 
tion, ''and let my latter end be like his." Doubtless there is that 
in the Gospel of our salvation which is abundantly sufficient to 



632 memoirSi of the life, ministry, and writings. 



support the heart of the believer when sinking into the jaws of 
death. Nevertheless we are not without intimations from the Holy 
Scriptures that it is the misfortune of some to be too confident of 
the goodness of their state, and to have built their assurance of 
heaven on mistaken grounds. " Not every one that saith unto me. 
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that 
doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven : many will say 
unto me in that day. Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy 
name ? and in thy name have cast out devils ? and in thy name 
done many wonderful works ? and then will I profess unto them, 
depart from me, ye that work iniquity," Matt. vi. 21 — 23. Self- 
deception is not only possible ; it is to be feared that it is a more 
common case among religious people than is generally imagined. 
The Scriptures every where inculcate on professors the motive of- 
fear, Heb. iv. 1. andxii. 15 — 16, and though I should deem it highly 
presumptuous and criminal to judge the final state of any man, I 
never read or hear of these triumphant deaths without calling to 
mind the scriptures now mentioned. Mr. Scott was a rich man, 
and blessed with a kind and benevolent heart. He took great in- 
terest in the Shetland Mission, and at the time of his decease be- 
queathed to its use the sum of £3,000 in the 3i per cents, besides 
numerous other legacies to Bible and Missionary Societies, amount- 
ing to about five thousand pounds more. These were princely 
donations, and entitle his memory to esteem and affectionate regard 
from all who love the cause of the Redeemer. It is in this point 
of view that I unfeignedly lament to read the following anecdote. 

Dr. Clarke informs one of his correspondents that a little before 
his death, he was anxious to present the Doctor with a cheque for 
fifty pounds for the use of the Shetland Mission, but such was his 
exhausted state, that after the body of the cheque had been filled 
up " he was a whole hour, in his attempt to sign his name to it. 
At last he made something like ' Robert Scott ' which was barely 
legible. When he found he had succeeded, he spoke as well as he 
could these remarkable words : * Here, Dr. Clarke, here is my last 
act, and this is for the work of God in Shetland ; I send it to hea- 
ven for acceptance ; and the inhabitants will see from the writing 
that I shall he soon after." 

Now, I simply ask, how are we to reconcile this strange act with 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



633 



Rev. xiv. 13. 1 heard a voice from heaven saying unto me. Blessed are 
the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth : Yea, saith the Spirit 
that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow 
them ! A week after this, and before he quitted Pensford, Dr. 
Clarke addressed a long and highly complimentary letter to his 
Royal Highness the illustrious Duke of Sussex, on the return of 
his birth-day, January 27th. I notice it merely as affording proof 
of the learned Doctor's dexterity in acting the courtier, and ex- 
hibiting a specimen of his politics : thus it proceeds. 

" May it please your Royal Highness ! Encouraged by the con- 
descension which your Royal Highness has often taken of myself and 
my labours, I beg leave once more to have the high honor to approach 
your presence with my humble but fervent congratulations on the 
auspicious return of your natal day, a day which should be, on 
this account, venerated by every true Briton ! by every person to 
whom science and learning are dear ; by whom civil rights are 
duly estimated ; by whom the rights of conscience are deemed 
sacred ; and I may add, by all who devoutly wish for the diffusion 
of true religion, social happiness, and secular prosperity, through- 
out the empire. 

" Those who have most closely witnessed yOUr public life, are 
the most fully convinced, that to promote the accomplishment 
of those important ends, has ever been the prime object of your 
Royal Highness ; and that, especially in the eventful year which 
is now closed, the voice of your Royal Highness, has not only been 
lifted up in its native, as well as in its well-cultivated, energetic 
eloquence, to recommend, vindicate, and support the soundest, and 
most beneficent measures for the safety and welfare of the state : 
but they see also, that your widely-extending influence, and gener- 
ous patronage of benevolent institutions, and of the wise and learned, 
have been invariably employed to give life and activity to your 
Royal Highness's recommendations. Your Royal Highness has 
the happiness to see that your exertions have not been in vain, 
and that you flourish in a better world than that into which you 
were born ; and others witness, that your Royal Highness's share 
in pron.oting this general amelioration, is as large as your exer- 
tions have been marked, indefatigable and decisive. 

5 M 



634 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS. 

" On the last anniversary of your Royai Highness's birth-day, I 
was led to augur from the signs of the times, that the period was 
fast approaching, in which the wisdom and experience of your 
Royal Highness must be called forth to assist the councils and deli- 
berations of the state : as mighty efforts would be necessary to correct 
a system of corruption, which, though even superannuated was still 
potent and influential : to reduce to order what was confused, and 
after having purified the sources of civil justice and civil rights, place 
them, with all their attendant virtues and concomitant excellencies, 
more conspicuously upon their seat next the throne of the kingdom. 
The time has arrived, the mighty struggle has commenced, all the 
outworks of corruption and death have been carried, and the battle 
is turned to the gate. The citadel, though well posted and strong- 
ly fortified, will shortly, by its downfal, more abundantly illustrate 
the mighty working of the patriotic Sovereign, accompanied by 
his thrice Royal brother Sussex, and supported in the field by the 
veteran bands of the patriotic throne. May the last and most 
ruinous blow be dealt by the arm of your Royal Highness, that we 
may exultingly say, (the last head of the monster of political cor- 
ruption being lopped off,) — 

Thou hast done it, Royal Knight, the hydra lies 
Cursing her fate, and as she curses dies. 

" I have lived to see many political changes in this country in the 
last half century and almost all for the worse ; but a brighter day 
seems now to dawn. Your Royal Highness has long swam against 
the stream of political malversation, and for a time apparently studio 
inani ; but now you stem the torrent, and gain upon the flood. Old 
as I am, I hope to live long enough to see the mighty regeneration 
commence its career of general blessedness: and your Royal Highness 
pre-eminently associated with the Sovereign of the empire, and King 
of the people, in the administration of the justice, mercy, and bene- 
volence of the state, that the people may praise God for the King, 
and laud him for the Prince ; that the throne may, for ever, be es- 
tablished in righteousness, and your august person in health and 
happiness, joying, and beholding the order and general welfare." 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



635 



Alas ! how little of these visions of glory have been realized, 
after a lapse of two years and a half ! but I need not condescend 
to particulars ; few readers can be so ignorant of the events that 
are daily passing over us to need an instructor on topics of this 
kind. The letter, however, had its use ; we shall find Dr. Clarke 
in a few weeks, at his Royal Highness's levee, bowing to, and shak- 
ing hands with, prelates and nobles ! 

Before he took his departure from Pensford, Dr. Clarke received 
intimation of the death of the Rev. Thomas Roberts, of Bristol, one 
of his associates in the ministry — a man whom he very highly esteem- 
ed, and whom, forty-seven years before he had sent forth into the 
ministry to preach his first Sermon. Dr. Clarke was invited by 
his widow to preach his funeral Sermon, but his sympathy for Mrs. 
Scott induced him to decline the invitation. 

These reiterated instances of mortality were well calculated to 
impress a reflecting mind with just sentiments of the vanity of 
human life ; and at Dr. Clarke's advanced age, wean from its follies 
and visionary pursuits. Add, however, to the loss of so many 
valued friends, dropping off one after another in quick succession, 
the Cholera had made its appearance in the country, if not in 
London, and a general alarm prevailed of its frightful ravages 
among our fellow creatures. Must it not than be a source of great 
surprise to meet with such a letter as the following from Dr. Clarke 
to one of his children 

Before day, Feb. I3th, 1832. 

" My very dear Mary Ann , 

" The post of the morning you left us, brought me the card 
of his Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, to attend his Levee or 
Conversazione, on Saturday evening at nine o'clock. I set off 
by the coach on Saturday morning, and spent all the day at Bays- 
water. I was the forty -first in the arriv als : a number of officers 
were telegraphs, and the names flew by them to his Royal High- 
ness's ear. I entered the large room, where, at the threshold the 
Duke stood, who seized my hand, and said how glad he was to see 
me ; the arrivals became very quick ; and for some minutes his 
time was occupied by receptions; I stood not far from the entrance. 



636 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

speaking to Professor Lee, and some others ; the Duke came again 
to me and said, ' Dr. Clarke do you know the Archbishop of Can- 
terbury ?' ' No sir ' ' Come with me and I will introduce you to 
him.' He took me by the arm, and led me through the crowd : — 
we came to the Archbishop — The Duke said, ' Here, my Lord, I 
have the pleasure of introducing to your Grace, my friend Dr. Adam 
Clarke.' I bowed, so did his Grace, and immediately held out his 
hand : he said, ' Dr. Clarke, I am glad to see you : 1 know vou 
well by character, and have often received instruction from your 
writings,' (you know that he was one of the Commissioners on the 
public Records — and to my papers read before those Commis- 
sioners, he undoubtedly alluded.) That over, the Duke took me 
through the crowd, and introduced me to the bishop of Chichester, 
who talked with me for a quarter of an hour, till up came the 
bishop of London, who shook my hand, enquired after my health, 
and asked after your brother Joseph. Before he came up, I had 
been extolling the exertions of the bishop of London to his Lord- 
ship of Chichester ; who addressing the bishop of London said, 
* Ah, my Lord, Dr. Clarke and 1 were talking of you before you 
came up ; but I will not tell your Lordship what Dr. Clarke 
said of you.' Soon after, the Duke took hold of my arm^ 
and begged to introduce me to some of the Foreign Ministers^ 
Lords, Chief Functionaries, Learned Foreigners, &c. &c. After a 
great many to's and fro's, the Duke addressing me with great affec- 
tion, said, (scores being all around us) ' Dr. Clarke I am very 
glad to see you.' His Royal Highness told me that Ram-Mohun- 
Roy would be here this night, and he would inti'oduce me to him. 
1 bowed ; and then it was about twenty minutes after ten, and I was 
determined not to stay late ; I therefore slipped off, and met Ram- 
Moliun-Roy as I came down the steps ; but I passed on to look for 
my gig. When I came into the ante-room for my hat, one of the 
gentlemen in waiting came from up stairs, — ' Sir, the Duke has 
been calling for you.' I said, ' I am just setting off.' He said, 
'The Duke has been calling twice for you.' I ran up stairs, my hat 
in my hand and my coloured handkerchief about my neck, and en- 
tered the large saloon ; the Duke spied me in a moment — caught 
me by the handj led me to Ram-Mohuu-Roy, and introduced me 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



037 



As soon as this was over I slipped out, and away went your Father 
from a place where he had received the highest honours." 

The subject is again touched upon in a letter to Mr. Southey, 
the Poet Laureate, dated Haydon Hall, Feb. 24th, accompanying a 
volume of his " Succession of Sacred Literature." In this letter he 
says, " I was not a little mortified to find, after my return from Ken- 
sington Palace, that you were at the Royal Duke's levee, and I had 
not the opportunity of making my bow to you in the presence of 
those mighty ones who crowded those splendid rooms. I hope the 
next time to have better luck !" Would the founder of Methodism 
have gone to one of these levees — gone repeatedly — and contemplat- 
ed a reiteration ? Would the founder of Christianity ? Mr. Southey 's 
letter in reply is so interesting, (to me, at least) that I hope I may 
be pardoned for introducing it. Thus he writes, 

Keswick. 

" Dear Sir: — Your book has just reached me : for which and 
for the kind letter that accompanied it, I thank you heartily. — The 
Dr. Southey whom you might have seen at Kensington palace, is 
my brother, who I suppose went thither as a Fellow of the Royal 
Society. I am seldom in London, and never at Levees when I can 
with propriety avoid them : yet I would willingly go to one for the 
pleasure of meeting you there, once more, after an interval of 
three-and-thirty years ! 

** Twelve months ago, I passed three days at Bristol, where I 
had not been for twenty years before ; I went into my father's shop, 
and requested leave to go into the house ; and into the room where 
my cradle had been rocked. I went also to Bedminster, where my 
mother was born, and where, in her mother's house the happiest 
days of my childhood were passed : there also I asked permission to 
go in. The house had been remodelled, and the gardens laid out 
in the manner of these times. I recognized nothing as it had been, 
except a few trees which my uncles and my grandfather had 
planted. 

" At my good old friend, Joseph Cottle's, I saw an excellent like- 
ness of Charles Fox,* his sitting for which I very well remember. 

* Not the Statesman, but a young man formerly mentioned in these me- 
moirs, See page 288. 



638 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



It ought to be preserved as the remarkable countenance of a very 
amiable and remarkable man. I have profiles of himself, of his 
■wife, and of the parrot, of which they were both so fond ; — the hu- 
man likenesses, taken by Cottle, and reduced by a pentograph — the 
bird sportively cut by him on the same evening. I have also a 
drawing of the bridge at Almarez over the Tagus, made by Fox 
from a sketch which I brought from the spot ; and I have his card 
as a bookseller, at Falmouth. Upon the feeling which induces me 
to preserve such things, what a superstructure have superstition 
and knavery erected 1" R. Southey. 

About this time (February, 1832) Dr. Clarke was honoured with 
an invitation from the Board of Managers of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church of New York, dated Dec. 23rd, 1831, inviting him over 
to the American Continent, to assist in their missionary labours* 
and in their church assembly. He regretted his inability to com- 
ply with their request, and returned the following answer. 

" Gentlemen, and Rev, Brethren: — Having been absent in the 
west of England for a considerable time, your letter did not reach 
my hand till some weeks after its arrival. Your kind invitation to 
visit the United States was gratifying to me, and had I been ap- 
prised of your intention a few months earlier, I should most cer- 
tainly have endeavoured to have met your wishes, and by doing so, 
I have no doubt I should have been both gratified and profited. 
But the warning is too short, and I am engaged so far, both to En- 
gland and Ireland in behalf of our Missionary cause, that I cannot 
by any substitute redeem those pledges. I had proposed also to 
visit the Shetland islands if possible, but as I had not pledged my- 
self to this voyage, I could have waived my purpose in favour of 
America, to visit which I have been long waiting for an opening in 
Providence ; I might add, that I should have wished to have had 
the appointment of our Conference for the voyage. 

" Now, although I feel a measure of regret, that I am disappoint- 
ed in this wished-for visit to the American Continent ; yet I am far 
from supposing that there may not be a providential inter- 
ference in the way. I am, as no doubt you have already learnt/ an 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL.D., F. A. S. 



639 



old man, having gone beyond three-score years and ten, and conse- 
quently not able to perform the labour of youth. You would na- 
turally expect me to preach much ; and this I could not do. One 
sermon in the day generally exhausts me ; and I have been obliged 
to give up all evening preaching, as I found the night air to be pe- 
culiarly injurious to my health. My help therefore must have been 
very limited, and in many cases this would have been very unsatis- 
factory to the good people of the United States. This difficulty, I 
grant, might have been supplied by an able assistant who might 
have been inclined to accompany me ; but even this would not have 
satisfied the eye or ear of curiosity. But as the journey is now im- 
practicable, these reflections are useless. 

" I respect, I wish well to your State, and I love your church. 
As far as I can discern, you are close imitators of the original Me- 
thodists, (than whom a greater blessing has not been given to the 
British nation since the Reformation,) holding the same doctrines, 
and acting under the same discipline : therefore have you prospered 
as we have prospered. There is no danger so imminent, both to your- 
selves and to us, as departing from our original simplicity in spirit, 
in manners, and in our mode of worship. As the world is conti- 
nually changing around us, we are liable to be affected with these 
changes. We think, in many cases, that we may please well-inten- 
tioned men better, and be far more useful to them, by permitting 
many of the more innocent forms of the world to enter into the 
Church : wherever we have done so, we have infallibly lost ground 
in the depth of our religion, and in its spirituality and unction. I 
would say to all, ' Keep your doctrines and your discipline, not on- 
ly in your church-books and in your society rules, but preach the 
former without refining upon them — observe the latter without bend- 
ing it to circumstances, or impairing its vigour by frivolous excep- 
tions and partialities.' 

" As I believe your nation to be destined to be the mightiest and 
happiest nation on the globe, so I believe that your Church is like- 
ly to become the most extensive and pure in the Universe. As a 
Church abide in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship. — As a na- 
tion, be firmly united ; — entertain no petty differences ; — totally 
abolish the slave trade j — abhor all offensive wars ; — never provoke 



640 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



even the punyest State ; — and never strike the first blow. Encou- 
rage agriculture and friendly traffic — cultivate sciences and arts ; 
let learning have its proper place, space, and adequate share of es- 
teem and honour ; — if possible, live in peace -with all nations; — 
retain your holy zeal for God's cause and your country's weal : and 
that you may ever entertain your liberty — avoid as its bane and 
ruin — a national debt. I say to you, as it was said to Rome of old, 

* Tu regere imperia populos, Roraane, memento, 
Hae tibi erunt artes pacis que imponere morem, 
Parcere subjectos et dcbellare superbos 1' *' 

Unqustionabty there is valuable advice in this letter — but what por- 
tion of it has a respect to the affairs of the nation would have been 
more pertinently addressed to the American Congress than to a sect 
of Methodists, and one cannot but wonder that the writer should 
have lost sight of this distinction. It might seem captious to add, 
further, that the counsel given to adhere to the doctrines and disci- 
pline of Methodism, as these are to be found " in their church 
books and society rules," would have been more germain if applied 
to the New Testament, and the example of the apostolic churches, 
with which unfortunately Methodism has little or no concern, but 
can stand independent of either ! 

Though placed by Confei'ence on the " supernumerary" list, or 
as he himself expressed it, without the working pale. Dr. Clarke 
was no loiterer in the vineyard, but employed himself in preaching, 
both in season and out of season, as opportunity offered. In the 
month of May, we find him at Sheffield, attending a Missionary 
meeting, where he was worried to death with applications for ser- 
vices which he was ill-qualified to perform. While here, too, he 
received the first intimation of what had recently befallen the mis- 
sionaries in Jamaica. Five of the Wesleyan chapels were levelled 
to the ground by white men, consisting of magistrates, custadoes, 
constables, militia, merchants, &c. Dr. Clarke felt keenly under 
this outrage : " I see," said he, in a letter to Mrs. Clarke, " that 
there is a flame kindled in our inheritance, and I feel that I am 
needed. — I shall pocket and seal up all my causes of complaint— 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, L.L.D., F. A S. 64l 

join myself to the forlorn hope, at the front of the storming party, 
and mount the breach for the God of Armies in the defence of his 
people." 

Before Dr Clarke returned to town, however, he crossed the chan- 
nel to visit his Irish schools, for the last time. He left Liverpool, 
on Friday, May the 18th, in the " Corsair" steamer, and after a de- 
lightful passage of fifteen hours, landed on the Irish shore, whence 
he proceeded to the residence of his friend Mr. Harpur, where he 
was attacked with disease which confined him to his bed and brought 
him to the brink of the grave. Besides a bad state of the bowels, 
he was afflicted with rheumatic gout. A physician was called in 
Dr. W. H. Catherwood, who watched over his patient with the 
most tender solicitude, and after a week of intense suffering, the 
complaint partially yielded to medical treatment. On the 29th of 
May, he was able to address the following short letter to one of his 
sons in London. 

" When I left Liverpool, though I had been ill there with spasms, 
I was so far better as to hope I should have been able to go through my 
workhere, and I have preached when I was scarcely able to stand, and 
the last time I did so settled the account : for the next day I was 
unable to rise, and a physician was sent for : he thought the sei- 
zure in my foot would turn to an attack of the gout ! This was a 
tocsin to me. I have been confined to my bed, and the amiable 
physician, for one more so I never met, did all that skill, and con- 
stant and affectionate attention could do : he is a Presbyterian, 
and worthy the name of Christiaa. To make a long and painful 
story short, here I am totally useless. I am laid up at Mr. Har- 
pur's, where even angels could not shew me greater kindness, and 
the best society in the place are overwhelming me with their affec- 
tionate attentions. I am now sitting in my easy chair ; it indeed 
may be easy, but as for him who sits in it, easiness is far from 
him." 

Dr. Clarke appears to have been detained in Ireland by this in- 
disposition, at least five weeks, though some abatement of its sever- 
ity allowed him after the first fortnight, to proceed to Belfast on 
the 2nd of June, and on the following day, he managed to preach 
in the Methodist chapel, Donegal Square, to a large congregation, 

5n 



042 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

which could not have been a very prudent action in one, tottering 
as he was, on the brink of the grave ; but he seems often to have 
lost sight of the fact, that his tenement was one of clay, and not of 
iron or brass. Writing to one of his daughters, on the 8th of June, 
he tells her, that the first time he crossed the threshold for about a 
fortnight was when he left his chamber to go into the coach which 
was to convey him to Belfast, where, the next day, he was obliged 
to preach, though scarcely able to stand alone. He got, however, 
to his friend Mr. Harpur's residence, by easy stages, and there took 
up his abode till the 20th, when he left Coleraine in an open car, 
on his return to Belfast, passing through Antrim, and on the fol- 
lowing day, went on board the " Chieftain " steamer which con- 
veyed him to Liverpool. 

This was a most trying period to Dr. Clarke. During the time 
he was laid up in Ireland, the family, having got intimation of his 
afflicted state, prevailed upon one of his sons to proceed to hts 
assistance and relief. He left London on the 12th June, on his 
way to Liverpool, an outside passenger, and having proceeded as 
far as Leamington, the coach was overturned, and he narrowly 
escaped with his life — but so much bruised as to be utterly unable 
to proceed. How the father was affected by this catastrophe 
may be inferred from the following paragraph extracted from his 
journal. 

" June I6tk — 1 have just received a letter from the Swan Hotel, 
Birmingham, stating that my son, on his way from London to 
Liverpool, was upset near Leamington, and now, bruised and wound- 
ed, is laid up at that hotel ! Alas ! alas ! and I do not know the 
extent of this evil ; but, unfit as I am to undertake this journey 
and voyage, I will set off for Belfast, and take the first vessel 
there for England. Oh ' may God in his mercy, interpose in his 
behalf ! Spare the life of my son ! and give me strength for the 
journey and voyage before me I Oh, what a Providence is this . 
May God work in his mercy, and silence any irregular feelings or 
complaints in my soul I Shew me, shew me, O God, the way that 
I should take 1 Oh ! let me not be laid up again, either by sea, or 
by land r 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL.D., F. A. S. 643 

He reached Liverpool oa the 22nd, and on the following day, 
thus records in his journal. 

" June 23rc?. — Here I am laid up at my friend's, my disorder is 
increasing. I had entertained hopes of being able to preach to 
day ; but now all is over : I can neither walk nor stand. May 
God give me submission and patience !" 

*' June 26th. — I have had a day and a night of pain and anguish, 
and no rest. The swelling and pain in my foot is [are] increased 
to a very high degree : I am totally unfit to travel, or to be 
removed : what is my ailment I cannot exactly say — some think it 
is the gout : if so, it is the first I have had, and now I am in my 
seventy-second or seventy-third year. Nor have I heard that any of 
my ancestors ever had such a disease, and most certainly none of 
my family ever had it." 

At this time the Cholera was raging in Liverpool to an alarming 
degree. Thus the Doctor writes in his Journal, Oakfield, June 
27th. " The news from Liverpool is very dismal ; Cholera cases 
are increasing ; and the inhabitants are afraid to go out of their 
houses for fear of catching the disorder : business is nearly at a 
stand, for scarcely any person will enter the town from the country 
through the same terror. May God take care of my friends and 
myself : I have not strength to fly from the plague : I resign my- 
self to the sovereign of heaven and earth. He can keep me from 
the pestilence that walketh in darkness, as well as the destruction 
that wasteth at noon-day." 

" June 2Sth. — The Cholera continues on the mcrease ; forty- 
nine cases to day, and a third ship with emigrants has put back 
with the Cholera on board. Mr. Bunting and Mr. Comer came 
over to Oakfield to dinner ; they wish to persuade me to stop for 
the approaching Conference ; and, indeed, in reference to the Shet- 
land Islands, it may be necessary, as I can get the promise of no 
preacher to go over, and four are wanted. We had a good deal of 
conversation respecting the uneducated state of Ireland : we 
were decidedly against the Government plan of leaving the Bible 
out of the schools, which is proposed merely to please and con- 
ciliate the Roman Catholics : to it in no form shall I ever agree : 
there shall be the whole Bible in all the Schools in which I am 



644 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

concerned. I believe Government are sincere, but they are greatly 
deceived." 

Altering his mind about waiting for the Conference, Dr. Clarke 
set off from Oakfield on the morning of Saturday, June 30th, on 
his way to Worcester. In leaving Liverpool he hoped to have left 
the Cholera behind him ; but when he reached Chester he found 
it had arrived there before him ; he proceeded to Wrexham, and 
there also was the Cholera ! He, however, got to Worcester, on 
the evening of that day, and having passed the night and follow- 
ing day there, set off at 6 o'clock on Monday morning, and arrived 
at home that evening, where he found his family well, and his son, 
Theodoret, much recovered. In his Journal he thus records his 
impressions. 

" Thus terminates a journey remarkable for affliction, disappoint- 
ment and suffering. I went over to Ireland to work : — I could do 
nothing, being called to suffer. My soul, hast thou learned any 
good lesson ? Yes. What is it ?' It is this : that I have now such 
evidence of old age as I never had before : yet I believe my un- 
derstanding is as clear, and my judgment as sound as ever ! But, 
during my late detention and sufferings, have I repined against 
God or His Providence ? — felt that my lot was hard, and that I 
was not permitted by Him to do that work which was merely for 
his glory ? No ; I was only disappointed, and I endured the mortifi- 
cation without a murmur. I was merely afflicted, but I was enabled 
to bow my neck to his yoke, or lie at his foot-stool. I believe I felt 
that He was doing all things well ; that I was safe in His hands, 
and therefore I could say, and did often repeat that commendatory 
petition frequent among our pious fore-fathers — In manus tuas^ 
Domine, commendo spirituin meum ; ' Into thy hands, 0 Lord, I 
commend my spirit.' 

" The Cholera was before me, behind me, round about me, but 
I was preserved from all dread. I trusted in the sacrificial death 
of Jesus ; no trust is higher ; and none lower can answer the end ; 
therefore I was not divided between two opinions or two creeds ! If 
Christianity be not true, there is no religion upon earth, for no 
other religion is worth a rush to man's salvation ; if we have not 
redemption in Jesus, there is no Saviour ! If not justified through 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKK, LL. D., F.A.S. 645 

His blood, and sancli6ed by His Spirit, there is no final happi- 
ness." 

When the friends and family of Dr. Clarke began to collect 
around him, after his return home from Ireland, they were forcibly 
struck with his altered appearance, and it excited a deep solicitude 
for his welfare. He himself dwelt forcibly on the prostration of 
his strength, chiefly, however, in reference to his fear of being laid 
aside from preaching, and incapacitated for prosecuting those 
labours in which he greatly delighted. One of his daughters having 
gone over to Haydon Hall to see him, he thus accosted her ; " See 
how the strong man has bowed himself : for strong he was, but it is 
God who has brought down and he can raise up ; He still owns 
the word which I preach — He still continues my influence among 
the people, and hence it is plain He has yet other work for me to 
do. I have never fallen out with life, but I have often fallen out 
■with myself because I have not spent it better ; to remedy this, I 
should be glad^ with my present knowledge and experience, to live 
life over again. 1 do not admire the thought that 

Life does little more supply 

Than just to look about us and to die.* 

This sentiment, practically regarded, would be the creed of the 
slusfffard and the coward. No, there is in life much to be done, 
much to be learnt, and much to be suffered : we should live in time 
in reference to eternity. This I know, God's mercy has had a 
great deal to do to bring us thus far ; it will have more to do to 
bring us to the verge of the eternal world ; and it will have most 
of all to do to bring us to glory." 

It is wonderful that in such a state of exhaustion as Dr. Clarke 
now found himself to be in, he should for a moment entertain 
the notion of going back to Liverpool to attend the meeting of 
Conference — yet so it was. He announced it that evening during 
his daughter's visit, and Mrs. Clarke mildly expostulated with him 
about it, but his answer was " I think with you, I am scarcely fit to 
go ; but I have duties yet to perform in reference to Shetland and the 
Irish Schools ; and besides, I earnestly wish to leave my testi- 



646 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

mony for God and Methodism once more in the midst of my breth- 
ren." One would have thought that all this might have been 
managed without subjecting himself to the fatigue of a journey of 
four hundred miles, especially in his then feeble and tottering 
state — and above all, knowing, as he did, the prevalence of the 
contagion in that place. However, on the 19th July, he left Hay- 
don Hall, on his way to Liverpool, and on the 21st thus wrote to 
his eldest sou. — " I had but one passenger in the coach with me, 
and he got out after the first sixty miles, so all the remainder of 
the way to Liverpool I was alone, and able to accommodate my 
leg in any direction. But I am apparently come into the very 
jaws of the Cholera. Mr. Comers servant and his wife have both 
had an attack, but are recovered. Their cousin came to Liverpool 
seeking work, went to their house, took it, and was dead in a few 
hours. Miss Swainson, who kept our Charity School, in Brunswick 
chapel, took it last Sunday and died in the course of the day. Her 
sister, Mrs. Meadows, of Aintree, came in to attend upon her, which 
she did till she died, and then returned : on her way home she was 
seized with Cholera, at Kirkdale, put into some carriage, taken to 
her own house, and was dead before twelve at night. So I am come 
almost into the fangs of this ruthless disorder. I feel no alaim; to 
be over solicitous would answer no good end. I write merely to 
tell you all that I am safe." 

A week after, he thus writes to Mrs. Clarke, under date of July 
28th, 1832. " I have been very poorly, and yesterday was so ill * 
that Mr. Comer would call in Mr. Surgeon Hensman. A distress- 
ing cough obliged me to leave the Conference, and take to my 
room at an early hour : notwithstanding my state was pretty well 
known to the brethren, they took the advantage of my absence to 
come to a vote that I should preach before the Conference, in place 
of the Ex-President: this was passed unanimously, and the Presi- 
dent, Ex- President, Mr. Bunting, and others, came to Mr. Comer's 
to announce it to me. I refused saying, that, conscientiously, I was 
not able. This morning they have got the vote repeated, and the 
President being obliged to go to the revisal of the Stations, I was plac- 
ed in the chair, and continued in it tiil the sittings closed. 

" Yesterday I delivered up the Shetland jMission to the Confer. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL.D., F A. S 6i7 

cnce, and it is to be received into their missions. 1 gave up also, 
the £3,000 of my trust-ship for the Shetlands, which I hold under 
Mr. Scott's will, and the £400, which I have from the Hon. Sophia 
Ward. I have offered also the Irish schools, which I believe will 
be received. Mr. Clough and Mr. Joseph Taylor are with me here, 
so that I feel, in every respect, much at home. If I am able to get 
through to-morrow's preaching I will let you know." 

On the 31st of July, he thus writes to one of his daughters : " I 
keep as close to Conference as possible, and go limping on my staff 
to Brunswick chapel, and back to my lodging, in the Garden of Cu- 
cumbers. Poor Mr. Hensman comes frequently to the chapel to 
examine my stale, and does all he can to keep off from me ' the 
fiery dart of death.' Several of the preachers have been indisposed, 
but I trust we shall return with our ranks unbroken. To day I am 
finally set down supernumerary for Windsor, with this N. B. 
' Though Dr. Clarke is set down supernumerary for Windsor, he is 
not bound to that circuit ; but is most respectfully and affectionate- 
ly solicited to visit all parts of our connexion, and labour according 
to his strength and convenience.' So I have got a roving com- 
mission : 

* The world is all before me, where to fix. 
And Providence my Guide.* 

I must go to help your brother Joseph at his important Frome 
meeting, if I can. I set off to-morrow to Reddish House, at the 
earnest request of our excellent friends, Mr. and Mrs. William 
Smith ; and from thence I purpose going to see your sister Row- 
ley, and after that to Frome." 

We are now brought to the commencement of the last month of 
Dr. Clarke's earthly career. He fulfilled his intention of proceed- 
ing from Lancashire to visit the Rowley family at Worcester, and 
thence to Frome. The occasion of his visiting the latter place was 
to assist his son, Mr. J. B. B. Clarke, curate of Frome, in the for- 
mation of a " Society for the amelioration of the condition of the 
Poor," in that very extensive parish. Accordingly he arrived there 
on the morning of the 8th of August, preparatory to the public 



648 MEMOIRS or THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

meeting which was fixed for the next day. The reader will be gra« 
lifted with the following extract from the pen of the curate of Fromc, 
giving an account of his venerable fathei 's appearance at this 
period. 

" About eleven o'clock on the morning of the 8th, much earlier 
than there was any reason to expect my father, I was passing 
through the hall, when I saw the well-known blue travelling bag- 
resting against the wall ; and, filled with unexpected joy, I went to 
the dining room which he had just entered before me. ' The old 
man, you see, Joseph, is come,' said he, with his usual tone of kind- 
ness, as he placed his hand upon my head, and kissed me, ' though 
battered and tossed about, he has still strength to come at the call 
of his son.' He sat down for a few minutes while I took off his 
gaiters ; and then, as was his frequent custom, he began to walk 
slowly, diagonally, across the room, asking various questions about 
myself and family, and talking of the occurrences and company he 
had met with on the road from Cheshire. It was then that I 
observed a very marked difference in his appearance ; his cheeks 
had fallen in, and he was considerably thinner than when I had last 
seen him ; his step was slow and heavy, with small remains of that 
elastic firmness for which his walking was always remarkable, and 
the muscles of his legs had evidently much shrunk — a sign of old 
age, which his straight and well proportioned limbs had never be- 
fore shewn ; his neck also was apparently shorter ; and, besides 
these symptoms of decay, which I never for a moment supposed 
to be other than the mere effects of recent illness, when walking 
out with me, there was more dependance on my arm and on his 
staff, than had ever been usual with him. All these things pained 
and distressed me, but did not strike me as being the precursors of 
his final removal." 

In a letter to a female friend, which Dr. Clarke wrote from Frome, 
two days after the meeting had taken place, he tells her, " The chair 
was taken by the Most Noble the Marquis of Bath, supported on 
the right by the Earl of Cork, and on the left by the Bishop of Bath 
and Wells : some members of parliament were present, several of 
the Clergy, and Ministers of all denominations, the principal gentry 
of the place, titled and other ladies, lawyers, &c. &c., and that no- 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



649 



tiling might be wanting, cloth-workers, porters, and MethodisJ 
preachers !" 

The meeting was, no doubt, a very gratifying spectacle to Dr. 
Clarke, who could not be but delighted to see his son surrounded 
with such a company. He spoke at considerable length. 

After favouring his correspondent with an a count of the preli- 
minary addresses. Dr. Clarke adds, " I was called up to the sixth 
motion, and, when I came forward, all eyes were directed to the 
old grey head, and I was looked at as if I had been some strange 
non descript animal, which had been often spoken of but never be- 
fore seen ! For a few seconds I stood the silent object of general at- 
tention, after having made my bow to the constituted authorities, — 
the Marquis, the Earl, and the Bishop, and then, the assembly €?i 
masse. Having broke silence, I addressed the Marquis, and humbly 
begged leave to ask for what purpose I was called before his Lord- 
ship, having nothing to ask, nothing to argue, nothing to recom- 
mend, either from private communication or written document ; not 
even a resolution or motion to serve as a * peg to hang a speech on." 
I spoke this pleasantly, and in a moment it was perceived that the 
Secretary had neglected to send me the Resolution that I was to 
bring before the Meeting. The pleasant manner in which I treated 
my own embarrassment tickled the fancy of all, and I had a gene- 
ral cheer. The Resolution was handed along the platform, and 
when it came to my hand I read it aloud — it treated of the Visitors, 
and its chief object was the collection which was to be made at the 
end of the Meeting. I spoke of charitable institutions in general — 
of that now recommended, and of its great and paramount necessity 
as had appeared from the reasons alleged for the Institution : — 
told several anecdotes with which all seemed pleased exceedingly. 
When I came to the Visitors, I strongly recommended that females 
should be employed ; and in doing this, mentioned the case where 
a number of men had been sent into a particular district, of which 
they could make little or nothing; and when, after several trials, it 
was still unproductive, at the suggestion of a friend, a number of 
women were sent to the same ground, who laboured faithfully and 
to good effect; and when an inquiry was made and a balance struck, 
it was found that one woman was equaj to seven men and a half I 

5o 



650 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

Here the emotion was intense and the effect general. The Marquis 
laughed downright, an^ the Bishop smiled aloud, and the Earl 
joined as heartily as the rest. The eyes of the ladies sparkled like 
diamonds, and even the face of thick-lipped moping melancholy 
was gathered into a smile, and laughed ere it was aware, and cheers 
proceeded from all quarters. Finding that I had got the key of 
their hearts, and the strings oi iheir purses, 1 announced the collec- 
tion ; the Countess of Cork, the Bishop's grand-daughter, and some 
other ladies, took the plates and received the contributions, and the 
effect was such that nothing like it had ever appeared at Frome, for 
the collection amounted to about £160. To-morrow I am to preach 
for it in the Methodist Chapel." 

The reader may remember that Frome was one of the towns in 
the Bradford circuit, to which Adam Clarke received his appoint- 
ment on his first setting out as a Methodist preacher. (See Section 
iv. p. 97, &c.) We cannot be surprised therefore at the interest he 
felt on the present occasion, or that he should, in the course of his 
sermon, call to recollection tlie scenes of his youth. " Fifty years," 
said he, " have now passed since I first came to this place, preach- 
ing the unsearchable riches of Christ : then your preacher was a 
boy in years, unskilled in experience, untaught in knowledge, — 
but not wholly unlearned in that truth which maketh wise the sim- 
ple. Since that time I have been always learning ; I have studied 
my own heart, and there is yet work there to be done. I have been 
observing the ways and striving to know the love of God, in which 
indeed is a height to attain, a depth to penetrate, a breadth to under- 
stand, which increase in magnitude as we draw nearer to the Foun- 
tain of Light and Glory, And now, my brethren, I come again 
before you ; my hairs are now grey ; yet I acknowledge it as my 
proudest boast, that Adam Clarke ia still a learner, at the feet of his 
Master." 

Quitting Frome, Dr. Clarke set off with his son and family to Wes- 
ton, super mare, and on the following Sabbath, August 19th, had en- 
gaged to preach at Westhury, near Bristol. His text was 1 Tim. i. 15. 

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ 
Jesus came into the world to save sinners." The congregation wai 
crowded, and the people sang with great animation. While ex- 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. B., P A. S. 



651 



bis auditory to " accept of the salvation offered to them in the text I' 
he made a special alhision to the Cholera — describing it " as a 
mighty scourge in the hand of Jehovah, and a judgment which should 
awaken all men to flee to God through Christ as their only safety 
and sure refuge." 

To a gentleman who joined him after sermon. Dr. Clarke refer- 
red to his new supernumerary appointment, observing, *' The Con- 
ference have given me plenty of work, and a roving commission : 
I am going to begin it next Sunday, by preaching at Bayswater for 
the chapel, and the Sabbath following at Wilderness Row, and I 
have promised Mr. Beaumont that I will preach for him in the 
Southwark circuit ; so that I am in no want of work." 

Such were the schemes, anticipations, and projects of one who 
was within a week of his death ! He hastened home, where he ar- 
rived about the 23rd or 24th of August, " in a very poor state of 
health according to his own account of the matter, and to increase 
his distress, he found that intelligence had just reached the coun- 
try of some very disastrous occurrences that had taken place among 
the Shetlanders. On the morning of Tuseday, August 17th, a tre- 
mendous gale overtook the fishing boats, scattering them in all di- 
rections, and carrying them out to sea, where numbers of them sunk, 
the boatmen perished, leaving, of those who belonged to the Metho- 
dist connexion, about forty widows and nearly two hundred fatherless 
children. " Such scenes of wretchedness, such passionate distress," 
says the writer of the account, " I have never before witnessed." 

In a letter to a friend, dated the 24th of August, Dr. Clarke says, 
" What to do I do not know, nor where to turn : I have known no 
calamity in Shetland equal to this. Ireland is bad enough ; but 
what is all their wretchedness, what is all their misery, compared to 

the present state of {Shetland. I wrote to about a school I 

t/ished to set up near B , a very desolate place ; while we can 

we should work, and what we can we should perform ! But what 
can I do for Shetland ? Were it not so late in the year, I would set 
off thither." 

From the time of Dr. Clarke's return home, it was his invariable 
practice in the worship of the family, both morning and evening, 
to offer up his supplications in reference to the Cholera, by name. 



652 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFK, MiNIStRY, AND WRITINGS, 

that "each and all might be saved from its influence, or prepared 
for sudden death ;" and, as regards the nation at large, " that it 
would please Almighty God to turn the hearts of the people unto 
Himself, and cut short His judgment in mercy." 

On Saturday, August 25th, he summoned hrs family as usual, 
and it was observed he commenced his prayer with these words, 
" We thank thee, Oh, Heavenly Father, that we have a blessed 
hope through Christ, of entering into thy glory." On rising from 
his knees, he remarked to Mrs. Clarke that he thought he must 
not ki}eel down much longer, as it was with pain and difficulty he 
could rise up again. 

He was engaged to preach at Bayswater on the following morn- 
ing, which was Lord's day, and his friend Mr. Hobbs who resides 
there, had promised to fetch him from Haydon Hall, in his chaise 
which he accordingly did. He took a little refreshment before he 
set off, and ascending the chaise, drove out of his own gate for the 
last time. On the way to Bayswater his conversation was cheer- 
ful; but on his arrival at the end of his journey, appeared fatigued. 
His lassitude increased as the evening advanced, and an applica- 
tion being made to him to preach a Charity Sermon and fix the 
time, he replied, I am not well ; I cannot fix a time ; I must 
first see what God is about to do with me." 

Dr. Clarke had been labouring under a relaxed state of the 
bowels, ever since he left Frome ; but as that was habitual to him, 
an increase of it occasioned him no alarm. He had recourse, how- 
ever, to a little ginger and rhubarb, but refused every other recom- 
mendation urged upon him. He retired early to bed ; but the 
diarrhoea increased greatly during the night ; and on the Sabbath 
morning he was heard to be up at an early hour ; but as that was 
usual with him, it was not noticed. At six o'clock, however, he 
requested the servant to call Mr. Hobbs, who instantly rose, and 
on coming down stairs found Dr. Clarke standing with his great 
coat on, his travelling bag in his hand, his hat lying on the table 
just ready for a journey ! Addressing Mr. Hobbs, he said, "My 
dear fellow, you must get me home directly : without a miracle I 
could not preach — get me home — I want to be at home.** Observ- 
ing that Dr Clarke was excessively ill, Mr. Hobbs replied, " Indeed, 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



653 



Doctor, you are too ill to return home ; you had better stay here ; 
at any rate the gig is not fit for you, I will go and inquire for a 
post chaise, if you are determined to return to Eastcott." 

The whole family were now speedily roused — Dr. Clarke, unable 
to staud, sunk into a chair ; finding him very cold a fire was made 
— three of the females employed themselves in rubbing his hands 
and forehead, while Mr. Hobbs proceeded without delay to pro- 
cure medical aid. Mr. C. Greenly, of Chatham, who happened to 
be in the neighbourhood, and who had professionally attended the 
Cholera Hospital in that place, was sent for. In the meantime 
messengers were dispatched to apprise the family, and among the 
rest Mr. Thomas Clarke, a nephew of the Doctor's, who had been 
for many years a Surgeon in his Majesty's Navy, and had fre- 
quently seen cases of Cholera in the East, soon arrived. 

The medical gentlemen, on seeing Dr. Clarke instantly pro- 
nounced the case to be one of Cholera. His weakness had by this 
time increased so rapidly, that he could not be taken up stairs, 
and a bed was prepared for him in one of the parlours, to which he 
was conveyed, and laid upon it. Mr. Hobbs accosted him and 
said, " My dear Doctor, you must resign your soul into the hands 
of God, and trust in the merits of your Redeemer," to which he faintly 
replied, " I do." Dr. Wilson Philip was sent for, and he arrived 
about nine o'clock ; in short, every means that skill, experience, 
and attention could devise, were used to arrest the disease in its 
progress. 

At length the time for commencing public worship arrived, and the 
Chapel, as usu^l, was filled to overflowing. The reading of the 
prayers being ended, the Rev. Mr. Womersley ascended the pulpit, 
and having announced that Dr. Clarke was labouring under an 
attack of Cholera, the sensation, throughout the congregation, was 
indescribable. Mr. Thurston, an intimate friend of the Doctor's, 
left the Chapel, and hastened to Mr. Hobbs' house to ascertain the 
truth of the report, and finding it to be correct, immediately pro- 
ceeded to Haydon Hall to apprise Mrs. Clarke and bring her to 
Bayswater, where she arrived a little before four o'clock, to witness 
the lamp of life expiring in the socket On her entering the room. 
Dr. Clarke feebly extended his hand towardg her. One of his 



654 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

daughters, Mrs. Hook, hearing that her father was indisposed, 
though she knew neither the nature nor the extent of the calamity, 
instantly proceeded to Bayswater. Her father opened his eyes on 
her entering the apartment, and strove to clasp his fingers upon 
her hand ; but he only twice attempted to speak — once in the 
morning, when he asked " Am I blue ?" and again at noon when 
he said to his son, Theodore, " Are you going ?" 

Distressing as was the situation of Dr. Clarke, at this moment, 
the family still cherished hope. From the first, he appeared to 
suffer but little pain. The sickness did not last long ; and a slight 
degree of spasm which succeeded it, had passed away before eleven 
o'clock in the forenoon : but his strength was exhausted, and a 
difficulty of breathing ensued, which as evening advanced increased 
considerably, and was so distressing to Mrs. Clarke that it was 
found necessary to remove her into an adjoining room. About 
eleven o'clock P. M. intimation was given her, that the hour of her 
beloved husband's departure was evidently at hand. She passed 
with Mr. Hobbs once more into the sick chamber, but evidently 
unwilling to believe what she could not contemplate without the 
severest emotions. She gazed on that countenance for the last 
time which had never looked on her but with benignity, and said, 
'* surely, Mr. Hobbs, you are mistaken ; Dr. Clarke breathes easier 
than he did just now." To which Mr. Hobbs replied, " Yes, but 
shorter." At this moment Dr. Clarke heaved a short sob, and the 
spirit, emancipated from its clay tenement, " returned to God who 
gave it." 

The following reflections on this melancholy subject, are from 
the pen of Dr. Clarke's son, and deserve a place in this Memoir. 

" Though accompanied by every circumstance that could assuage 
grief, yet the departure of such a father must ever be felt by his family 
as a dire calamity. They were supported under it; for they knew 
whither he had journeyed before them. The blow must at some 
time have come ; and God, in mercy, so ordered events, that 
it fell with no additional force, but merely with its own dead 
weight. His constitution could not endure severe pain ; therefore, 
by a lingering illness, producing no suffering, and never suspend- 
ing any of his powers of activity, he was reduced to such a state of 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



655 



weakness, that his frame had not power to struggle in pain with 
the disease, but gradually sunk, with full consciousness, into his 
last sleep. He thought upon decay of either body or mind, with 
very little short of real anguish ; he was therefore called away when 
active in his Master's service, with all the powers of his mind in 
undiminished brightness. He was far from desiring a sudden 
death, and yet a protracted dying would have been to him most 
severely afflictive ; therefore, his body was not harassed by pain, 
and he had att the time granted him for preparing to meet his God, 
that, I believe, he ever desired. On the subject of sudden death, 
he once thus expressed himself: ' That sentence frequently ap- 
plied to the death of the righteous,' sudden death is sudden glory,' 
is a foolish expression. No man should desire to be taken off at a 
moment's warning. When my time comes to go the way of all the 
earth, I should pray not to be taken suddenly into the presence of 
my God. Gladly would I have time to brace on my armour, and 
take my shield. Then would I meet and struggle with the monster 
in the power of my Redeemer; and to the last gasp. Death, though 
conqueror, should possess no victory over Adam Clarke.* 
Though his animal powers had failed, and his speech was gone, 
yet entire consciousness remained, as many of his actions proved. 
His knowledge of persons around him also evinced it ; and from 
the posture of his hands, it was at once seen that he was indeed 
'bracing on his armour, and taking his shield.' " 

Dr. Clarke's remains were interred in the burying ground adjoin- 
ing the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, City-road, on Wednesday 
August 29th 1832. His grave is next to that of John Wesley, agree- 
able to his own often expressed wish. The funeral was attended 
by the members of his family, his numerous friends, and such of 
the preachers as were able to attend, among whom were Messrs. 
Henry Moore, Entwistle Beaumont, M' Nicol, France, Anderson, 
and Fielding. 

A few days alter the decease of Dr. Clarke it was proposed, 
through the medium of the Christian Advocate Newspaper, to erect 
a public monument to his memory. The hint was taken up, and a 
Committee formed for the purpose of carrying the matter into effect. 
The project was communicated to His Royal Highness the Duke 



656 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



of Sussex, who, on receiving the intimation, declared his readiness 
to contribute his mite towards the erection of a monument, at the 
same time expressing how sensibly he felt the loss which the Chris- 
tian world had sustained in the death of a man so talented, learned, 
and of such acknowledged reputation. His Royal Highness pro- 
posed that " the subscription should be so small, as to enable 
the least wealthy of the Doctor's admirers to contribute their mite 
in furtherance of so laudable an object." 

Meetings were now held for the purpose of carrying it into ef- 
fect ; but while these things were progressing, some of the Wesleyan 
Ministers in London, came to an understanding among themselves 
(promoted chiefly by the late Mr. Richard Watson) that it should 
be recommended to Conference to erect tablets to the memory of 
Dr. Adam Clarke, and the late Mr. Joseph Benson, who though 
one of the most distinguished of the Wesleyan Methodist ministers 
had been strangely overlooked in what respected a tribute to his me- 
mory. This seems to have checked the ardour for a monument, 
and eventually supplanted it ; for, Mr. Watson dying soon after- 
wards, the Methodist Book Committee unanimously resolved to re- 
commend to the Conference, the erection of tablets in the City-road 
chapel to the memory of the late Rev. Joseph Benson, the Rev. Dr. 
Adam Clarke, and the Rev. Richard Watson, similar to those already 
erected, in the same place, to the memory of the Rev. John Wesley, 
the Rev. Charles Wesley, the Rev. John Fletcher, and Dr. Coke. 

One would charitably hope that the insinuations so liberally 
thrown out in a late Memoir of Dr. Clarke, against the memory of 
Mr. Watson, that he acted in this instance from motives of envy, 
are wholly unauthorised — we hoped better things of Mr. Watson, 
and are unwilling to believe it. " It is a serious reflection" observes 
a friend of Dr. Clarke, that one of the principal authors of this 
device (the object of which was to frustrate the intended honour to 
the Doctor s memory ) should thus have bespoken a tablet to him- 
self — alluding to Mr. Watson. But the fact, we are told, is, " that 
Mr. Watson was the individual to whom it first occurred that Mr. 
Benson's character and reputation had not received the homage 
which they deserved ; and, after he had declared it to be his opini- 
on that venerable divine was a more learned man than Dr. Clarke, his 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. T» F. A. S. 657 

colleagues, who were accustomed to attach implicit faith to whatever 
dicta he pronounced, could do no less than acord an equal tribute 
to the former as to the latter of the distinguished ministers, con- 
cerning whose comparative merits he had delivered so invidious and 
erroneous a judgment. How differently did Dr. Clarke conduct 
himself towards Mr. Watson ! It was on his motion that he was 
summarily re-admitted into the connexion, after an alienation from 
it of several years' continuance ; in fact Dr. Clarke omitted no op- 
portunity of shewing honour to Mr. Watson, whose rare talents he 
was ever forward to acknowledge." 

To what degree of regard these insinuations of the rankling of en- 
vy in the breast of Richard Watson are entitled, it is not for us to 
say. Certain it is, that the best of men are but men at best ! All 
human characters appear to most advantage wnen seen at a distance; 
on a closer survey we discover many spots and wrmkles, which, 
till then escaped our observation. There has never been more than 
one faultless character in this world ; and it is much to be regret- 
ted that we are all of us so little emulous of copying it. The friends 
of Methodism would act wisely in saying as little as possible con- 
cerning these little bickerings and jealousies among their leaders 
and guides, and protest against the display that is made of them in 
the anonymous " Life and Labours of Dr. Clarke," which has re- 
cently been put forth by an ostensible friend of the party, in which 
are many things that might have been conveniently suppressed. The 
officiousness of friends has often done more injury to the memory 
of an individual than all the malice of his enemies! The project of 
erecting a monument to the memory of Dr. Adam Clarke " in the 
most public and prominent site that could be obtained for it in the 
metropolis," and even in " St. Paul's Cathedral", sufficiently shews 
how differently his partisans estimated his claims to posthumous 
fame, from that which was formed by the public in general. It was 
well for the memory of Dr. Clarke that the members of Conference 
and the Book Committee withheld their sanction from this project 
contenting themselves with a simple tablet in the City Road chapel. 
Were Dr. Clarke himself still among us, and his opinion asked, 
whether of the two plans for perpetuating his remembrance should 
be adopted, can any one who knew him through life, doubt for a 

6p 



658 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MiNISTRY, AND WRITINQJ?, 

moment which he would prefer ? Yet, the " Clarke Monuine.'it 
Committee" still exists, from which it would seem that the project is 
not wholly abandoned ! What else can we make of the following 
paragraph which is to be found in a late Memoir of the Doctor . — 
" Although so far as the public is informed, no definitive step has 
been taken towards the accomplishment of the object for which the 
Committee was formed, beyond the mere advertisement of that ob- 
ject ; and, although a considerable period of time has elapsed since 
that advertisement appeared ; yet under the circumstances, we do 
not hold ourselves justified in attaching blame to the members. 
Knowing with what formidable foes they have had to contend, we 
readily make great allowances in their favour. Still, we will ven- 
ture to suggest, that they have committed a very important error, in 
not publishing from time to time, the subscriptions which they have 
received. Had this method of proceeding been adopted when it ought 
to have been, it cannot be doubted, that by this time, the Committee 
would have discharged all its functions, excepting, perhaps, that of 
superintending the actual erection of the monument." 

It was remarked by the late Sir William Jones, a man whom 
Dr. Johnson was pleased to designate " the most enlightened of the 
human race," that " the best monument which can be erectedto the 
memory of an author is a good edition of his works." Sincerely 
respecting the memory of Dr. Clarke as an amiable, laborious, and 
learned man, one could ardently wish that his friends would con- 
tent themselves with the testimony to his worth now referred to, 
leaving it to the Nelsons, the Wellingtons, the Chathams, and the 
Foxes, to have recourse to bronze and marble for perpetuating their 
illustrious deeds. 

SECTION XXV. 

Review of the character of Dr. Adam Clarke, extracted mostly from 
the funeral Sermons, and biographical sketches of his contemporaries. 

Having now traced the life and labours of the subject of these 
Memoirs, from the cradle to the grave, and given some account of 
his multifarious writings ; it only remains to lay before the reader. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL.ly., F, A 9. 



659 



a few of the most interesting of the biographical sketches that have 
been furnished of him by his associates in the ministry who have 
survived him, and borne their testimony to his worth. The follow- 
ing handsome tribute to his memory, is said to be from the pen 
of Mr. David M* Nicol, and is entered upon the minutes of 
Conference. 

" This great man, and valuable minister of Christ, was born 
near Coleraine m Ireland, about the year 1762. In early life he 
gave striking indications of a mind possessed at once of extraordi- 
nary powers, and of an ardent thirst for knowledge ; and under 
the instructions of his father, a teacher of youth, commenced those 
studies which he prosecuted with such eminent success through 
every period of his subsequent life : and which he employed so no- 
bly and usefully in the illustration and enforcement of evangelical 
truth. His conversion, which took place about the sixteenth year 
of his age, was remarkably clear and sound : accompanied with 
the deepest feeling, first of contrition, and then of peace and joy 
through believing ; with an entire change of heart : and with the 
most decided resolution to devote his whole soul to the service of 
God. 

** Having spent a short time at Kingswood School, he was called 
out by Mr. Wesley, in the year 1782, as an itinerant preacher in 
the Methodist Connexion ; and soon justified the opinion formed of 
him by that admirable judge of character, who hesitated not to af- 
firm, * Adam Clarke is doubtless an extraordinary young man, and 
capable of doing much good'. For nearly half a century did he 
continue to perform the most important labours as the servant of 
God and of mankind, in various departments of the vineyard of the 
church, with great integrity, and with an industry, which perhaps 
has never been surpassed. 

'* The natural strength of his mind, and the range of his litera- 
ry and biblical acquirements, were, in the opinion of competent 
judges, far beyond the common standard, even of those who have 
obtained considerable rank among men of learning and research. 
Without at all presuming that he was wholly free from defects, ei- 
ther as a man, a preacher, or a writer, we may yet safely place him 
in all these characters among the great men of hi* age " 



660 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



" He was highly distinguished by liis extraordinary attainments 
in Oriental literature, which appears to have been one of the most 
favourite studies of his life, and by means of which he has often 
shed a new and profitable light on the sacred text. Of his writings 
in general it may be confidently said, they have added largely to 
the valuable literary and biblical stores of the country. 

" The ability and fervent zeal with which for so many years he 
preached the Gospel of the Grace of God to enraptured thousands, 
in almost every part of the United Kingdom, will long be remem- 
bered with the liveliest gratitude to their Divine Redeemer, by mul- 
titudes to whom his labours were greatly blessed, both as the means 
of their conversion and of their general edification. No man, in any age 
of the church, was ever known for so long a time to have attracted lar- 
ger audiences ; no herald of salvation ever sounded forth his message 
with greater faithfulness or fervour — the fervour of love to Christ, and 
to the souls of perishing sinners ; and few ministers of the Gospel, 
in modern times, have been more honoured by the extraordinary 
unction of the Holy Spirit, in their mmistrations. To this unction 
chiefly, though associated with uncommon talents, must be attri- 
buted the wonderful success and popularity of his discourses. 

" In preaching he had the happy art of combining great origi- 
nality and depth of subject, with the utmost plainness of speech and 
manner. Nor was this simplicity at all destroyed, but rather aug- 
mented, by the glow and animation of his soul when applying the 
offer of salvation to all within the sound of his voice, and reasoning 
strongly on the grand and vital doctrines of the Gospel. The ar- 
dent feeling, which, in others, sometimes leads to a rapid invention 
of elegant or of pompous language, in him was confined to the in- 
creased accumulation of great and noble sentiments. His favourite 
and most successful subjects in the pulpit were the love of God to 
fallen man, the atonement, repentance, faith in Christ as the grand 
principle of the spiritual life and of practical holiness, together with 
the undoubted assurance of adoption by the direct witness of the 
Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer. On these subjects, he 
would often rise to the genuine grandeur of evangelical preaching, 
pouring forth, like a torrent, the unostentatious eloquence of a be- 
nevolent and loving heart. Energy, indeed, was one very peculiar 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 661 

characteristic of his mind. Nor was he less remarkable for sensi- 
bility, and all the tenderness and sympathy of an affectionate dis- 
position. He could be gentle, even as a nurse cherisheth her chil- 
dren; yet, when evironed with great difficulties in the prosecution of 
his noble objects, he seemed, from the extraordinary vigour and de- 
termined purpose of his soul, to conquer them with ease. 

" His moral character was above all suspicion and above all 
praise. In this particular, no cloud, no speck was ever seen to 
darken the horizon of his life. In prayer he was simple, spiritual, 
devout, and sometimes singularly ardent. His piety was sincere, 
and deep, and eminently practical ; the very reverse of that sensi- 
tive, but unsound, feeling, which loves to flourish on the subject of 
experience, but serves not God in a conscientious obedience to all the 
precepts of his Gospel. He was almost a perfect model of diligence 
in duty. The ingenuity and energy with which he husbanded his 
time, and carried forward the arduous plans of usefulness in which 
he was constantly employed, form one of the most distinguished 
features of his admirable character. 

" He was a warm-hearted, faithful, affectionate, and constant 
friend. And in all the relations of domestic life, as a husband, a 
father, and a master, he was true to the duties which belong to them 
— most indulgent, kind, and sympathising : always happy in the 
bosom of his family, and always labouring, by every art in his pow- 
er, to jnake them also happy. 

''He was uniformly a firm, attached, and zealous Methodist* 
and in promoting the interests of our great cause, he may be said 
to have been ' in labours more abundant.' This love to the Body 
and the great public interests of Methodism, was never more de- 
lightfully evinced than at the last Conference, when, but a few 
-weeks before his lamented dissolution, he mingled with his brethren 
in the most affectionate manner, and very cordially assisted in dis- 
patching the business of that important assembly ; and, writing to 
a friend on the subject, he exclaims in the pious satisfaction of his 
soul, ' We have had a glorious Conference I' 

" We may just add, that he had been thrice chosen to fill the si- 
tuation of President of the Conference. He died suddenly of Cho- 
lera Morbus, in the vicinity of London, on the 26th of Augiwt 



662 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE. MmiSTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

1832, in the seventy-second year of his age. On the day of his 
death, when first seized, and entering on his sufferings, with pain- 
ful suspense as to the result of them, he was exhorted by a friend 
to put his trust in Christ. He replied, with a point and prompti- 
tude peculiar to himself, ' I have done that already;' leaving in 
these, which may be deemed his last words, a sublime lesson to the 
mortal survivors who might afterwards reflect upon his life and 
death, that they also should, by early, decided, and persevering 
piety, be found ready when their Lord should call." 

So much of the character of Dr. Clarke, as drawn by Mr. M^Nicol, 
has been recorded on the Minutes of Conference. It may not be 
amiss to introduce further into this place, the testimony borne by 
the same able writer, to other traits in the Doctor's character, in a 
more private capacity as well as to the merits of his writings. Ad- 
verting to his Commentary, he thus expresses himself. 

" Though critical and literary, above all other English Commen- 
taries embracing the whole Bible, it is also spiritual and practical, 
much beyond what might have been expected from a work of so 
much learning ; and perhaps the unlettered Christian, who has the 
happiness to possess it, is no less frequently heard resounding its 
praises, because of the profit he receives from its pages, than the 
critical inquirer, on account of the valuable accessions it gives to 
his knowledge. The author has, in fact, so simplified his learning, 
at least in many instances, as to combine both objects in the same 
exposition. In many cases, this, of course, could not be done : and 
none should be blamed for not accomplishing a contradiction. 
That the work has some considerable defects, no one certainly will 
have the courage to deny. This the excellent author himself was 
free to admit. Much of it, he observed, was written in his younger 
days : and in his latter years he had carefully prepared a corrected 
and improved copy for a new edition, when it should be wanted. 
To name no other, one principal defect of the work, in the judg- 
ment of many, is the almost total omission to explain the sense of 
the prophetic Scriptures, owing to the conviction of the author, that 
prophecy is not susceptible of any clear and certain explanation. 
Many portions of it have been admirably executed. We might 
mention the Pentateuch, the Book of Job, the Gospels, and the 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. ^» 663 

Acts of the Apostles. On Job, he exercised much time and pains, 
thinking out his opinions on that difficult but interesting book with 
more than ordinary care and research. And with regard to the 
Acts, he writes, London, January, 1814, * Acts will soon be finish- 
ed. It has cost me more labour than any other part of the work. 
I think it by far the best I have yet done.' And if the opinion 
of an author, on his own writings, be admitted as authority, the 
comment on the Books of Moses was also among the most success- 
ful efforts of his pen. With regard to some other books, he had 
the candour to allow, that they did not by any means come up to 
his wishes ; and perhaps the truth is, his strength of mind, gigan- 
tic as it was, could not be uniformly sustained throughout the whole 
of this prodigious undertaking.*' 

Of the Bibliographical Dictionary and the Succession of Sacred 
Literature, Mr. M'Nicol justly observes, that " the bibliographical 
information contained in them is extraordinary ; especially consid- 
ering his unfavourable circumstances as an active superintendant 
and preacher in the Methodist Connexion. To persons engaged in 
literary and theological researches, these writings are of great va- 
lue ; for the knowledge they supply of scarce and valuable works 
on the most important subjects connected with ecclesiastical learn- 
ing, must be highly prized by students in divinity : and the whole 
is interestingly enlivened by his own characteristic and instructive 
observations. Notwithstanding the multiplicity and magnitude 
of the books to which he refers, he trusted not, in general, to other 
bibliographers, but, wherever he could seize upon the volumes, 
carefully analysed and described them for himself." 

In discussing his claims to the title of a learned man, Mr. 
M'Nicol makes the following remarks: — " That he should have been 
profound, and critical, and absolutely unparalleled, in every branch 
of learning and of study, is not to be believed of any man that 
ever lived ; and he was himself the last person in the world to make 
the least approach to any such pretensions. On the other hand, 
we heed not the witticisms of those who would insinuate, that he 
was not in the main a man of deep, and accurate, and extensive 
learning. It is most likely, the truth lies between the two extremes, 
and much nearer the side of extravagant eulogium than the other 



664* MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

of mean and pitiful depreciation. However he may have been eve ] 
greatly excelled in certain lines of study, for our own parts, we be* 
lieve, that, both for variety and quantity of useful knowledge, or know- 
ledge in the general, Adam Clarkewasnotsurpassedby any individual 
of his time. He bad studied most of the sciences with great assiduity, 
the arts of rhetoric and of composition, as we have said, he delibe- 
rately undervalued. As to languages, he paid the greatest atten- 
tion to those termed Oriental. Several of the European languages 
he did not profess to know perfectly. It does not appear that he 
was very extensively acquainted with the German critics and theo- 
logians in general. It was true he made the great body of his know- 
ledge subservient to divinity, and with admirable effect ; but, had 
his studies been less general, or at least, as to many of them, more 
superficial ; had he concentrated his talents, his time, and his native 
powers of thinking, so as to originate and perfect some great work 
in one department of theology, he would most likely have excelled 
himself. His original capacity was vigorous and substantial, but 
far from fine and flexible. He mistook himself in saying, as he 
sometimes did, that he laboured on a barren soil. The soil was 
good, but encumbered, and difficult of culture. His understanding 
possessed great force, was clear and sound, and fitted to investigate, 
and, what is of the first importance in the operations of the mind, 
to arrange and generalise the subjects of his thoughts. But, in the 
fervour of these operations, and in his great impatience to pass on 
to other objects, he sometimes failed in that exactness of method, 
in that perfect exercise of judgment, and in that nice balancing of 
things, of which, notwithstanding, he was perfectly capable. His 
imagination was vivid and excursive ; but was not considered by 
himself as deserving any special cultivation and direction. His 
powers of invention were fruitful in the extreme ; and the tact and 
compass of his wit beyond those of most men. 

" His unexampled industry was both an integral part and a 
general principle — at once a cause and an effect — of his greatness. 
It was this industry, pursued with matchless energy, that made his 
mighty powers to tell with such force upon almost every subject to 
which he directed his attention. Learned men, who can appreciate 
such labours, are no doubt astonished at the efforts which could 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL.D., F. A. S. 



665 



produce both the kind and the quantity of his writings. In this 
spirit is the following advice in a private letter to a young man : — 
* Study yourself half to death, and pray yourself whole to life. Do 
something— something that you can look at — something that 
will be worth having when you are not worth a rush. I declare, I 
think, if I were you, I would dig, water, manure, lop off, tie up, lead 
along, &c. &c. &c., till my garden should bloom and blossom like the 
rose, and my whole ground be like Carmel.' While others slept, or 
banqueted, or idled out their despicable days in gossiping and folly, 
he kept the glorious harvest of this issue full in view, and ploughed 
with all his heifers, reckless of the sun and rain. Thus he ran, for, 
in regard to him, the word was often literally applicable ; thus he ran 
his lengthened and laborious, but honourable, career ; mindless of 
all things Avhich entered not into the essence of the duty just in hand. 
His life, indeed, is a study for a statesman or a warrior ; and if 
some men, in commerce or in trade, would transcribe the wonderful 
decision of his character into their own, it would multiply their for- 
tunes. 

" In the natural constitution of his mind, he was somewhat 
humoursome and restless, and very prone to indulge in metaphysi- 
cal investigations ; and perhaps, with only a small portion of 
religion, he might have been very much unsettled, both in his 
theological opinions and in the habits of his life. But decided, 
powerful, and progressive piety banded all his other noble qualities, 
directed them to their capable elevation of improvement, and kept 
them up to their own due pitch, beyond what cou'id have been 
effected by any principles of merely human strength. 

** His moral and religious character was beyond all praise. In 
this respect, his ' peace flowed like a river, and his righteousness 
like the waves of the sea.' His integrity was immoveable ; he held 
it fast with the firm and resolute grasp of a lion. Rectitude and 
benevolence were, indeed, the two great principles and component 
parts of his moral excellence. Another cause of his greatness may 
be found in the discipline of his mental struggles, and of the vast 
variety of impressive situations, companies, and circumstances, 
through which he passed during the most improvable part of his life 

6 Q 



666 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFB, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

To men of a certain cast, all such privations and collisions are ex* 
tremely favourable, as the means of giving mental power. 

" The wealth of his mind, like real property, seemed to increase 
with good management, in a compound ratio, that placed him far 
above the common ranks, and enabled him to exercise the liberal 
disposition so native to his heart, in lai'gely augmenting the scantier 
intellectual stores of others. The nature and mag-nitude of the 
subjects which he studied, gave him greatness. He has said, with- 
out the least reference to its effect upon himself, that Oriental litera- 
ture was peculiarly calculated to sublime the mind. He loved to 
be familiar with men and books, where greatness, combined with 
goodness, might be closely contemplated. In this view he was 
ceaseless in his praise of Mr. Wesley. On the same principle, he 
admired, and studied, and, in some degree, caught, the moral 
dignity of Dr. Johnson. St. Augustin's City of God was a work 
on which he set a high value, because of the prodigious reach of 
mind which he believed it contained. And many others might be 
mentioned, which he had studied on the same principle. But his 
greatness essentially consisted in the combination of his dis- 
tinguished po\yers and excellencies ; — capacity, energy, piety, and 
a wide arena and full scope for the exercise and proof of all. Had 
one of these important requisites been wanting, the whole must 
have failed ; the snapping of a single link would have ruined the 
whole series. And his simplicity was far from having the most 
unimportant share in the imposing aggregate, but gave a higher 
interest to his greatest qualities ; like a transparent cloud on dis- 
tant rocks, it imparted a peculiar softness and enlargement to 
them all. 

As to politics, he was extremely loyal to the monarchy, but 
frequently disliked the measures of the ministry. To the principles 
of the system so strenuously supported by Mr. Pitt, he was strongly 
opposed, believing that their tendency was to enslave mankind. 
During the whole of the late war, he scarcely ever cast his eye on 
tlie public prints ; not merely on account of his disapproval of the 
policy which led to the contest, but because, as a Christian, and a 
man of humanity, he could feel no kind of pleasure in the dailjf 
perusal of despatches which weie hlled with blood and slaughter. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 667 

" If he spoke at times with undue strength of expression, on 
systems of religion different from his own, it was the ardent love of 
Methodism, by which God had saved his soul, that occasioned this 
excess. With the men who held those systems, he was often very 
happy to hold a generous communion. There was, indeed, a gen- 
eral tendency in his mind to a high state of feeling. This was fre- 
quently observable in his language, his wit, in all his motions, not 
excepting the energy of his looks, and his walk. 

" With regard to his humility, it may be said, that, however free 
and familiar he might be among his friends, yet among the 
learned, the great, and those he deemed his superiors, he was 
blushingly modest. The same feeling, though in different propor- 
tions, attended him on all occasions. Of himself, he did not en- 
tertain high notions r of his brethren, he often did, and spoke in 
their praise, sometimes with a degree of enthusiasm. Self-taught 
scholars are often charged with speaking too much of themselves 
in connection with their learning, while the collisions and rival ship 
of the academy are thought to prevent this. To some extent it may 
be so ; for, if a man should, for the most part, stand alone in the 
company he keeps, the practice may grow upon him as a habit, 
and yet he may not be a proud man. Whatever custom of this 
kind, or of a confident manner, has been noticed in connection with 
our departed friend, who was commonly the instructor of his own 
xircle, those who knew him best will believe, that it did not arise from 
pride, but rather from the warmth of his temperament, and his deep 
conviction of the truth of his sentiments. Among the poor, the idea 
of condescension never seemed to cross his thoughts. He was per- 
fectly as one of themselves, and would stoop to anything which 
might contribute to their confort. For example, while visiting the 
hovel of distress and poverty, and perceiving that, from the con- 
dition of the bed, it must be a very uneasy one, he has had the 
patient removed for a few minutes, and straitened on the cordage 
himself with great dexterity. 

" It was his piety, the sustaining sense of the Divine presence, 
the conscientious conviction that he was serving God in a high and 
responsible employment, and the all-absorbing influence of his sub- 
ject upon his own mind ; — it was these, neither pride nor hardihood 



668 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MiMSTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

(for he disliked the gaze of the public, and even of mixed com* 
pany), that supplied him with the admirable self-possession and 
command of his thoughts, which was never known to forsake him. 

" There is good reason to believe that his private devotions were 
regular and frequent. 

''Little singularities and discrepancies have, perhaps too care- 
fully been marked by his observers. These defects lay rather in the 
physiology and instinct of a warm temperament, than in any obli- 
quity of his principle and purpose. Again, they were not always 
rightly named eccentricities. They were, in some instances, bold 
and proper deviations from the unprofitable usages of life ; and 
the true eccentricity, in such cases, lay on that side. And, even 
here, he often shewed the power of his intellect : for he had his 
reasons ; and he frequently discovered, that, even in smaller con- 
cerns, he judged by his common sense, and a constant regard, not 
to current opinion, but to the nature and absolute propriety of 
things. But, in the grand principles of character and duty, he 
showed a noble consistency and dignity through life. Here, there 
was no hesitation, nothing changeable or contradictory. 

In all the relations of life" (says this eloquent and philosophi- 
cal writer,) " as pastor, husband, father, master, friend, he was re- 
markably affectionate, condescending, aflfable, gentle, kind, meek, 
humble, cheerful, courteous, and communicative. Adam Clarke 
was an eminent example of true greatness ; a Minister, a writer, 
and a Christian man, much above the ordinary standard of these 
characters ; a class rather than an individual ; not a star, but a 
constellation ; a lofty pattern of faithful and ardent devotedness in 
the most responsible and difficult departments of the service of God 
to which men can be called on earth ! a noble evidence of the va- 
lue of sanctified abilities ; and an instructive instance of the power 
of religion in forming human nature to a character of righteousness 
and charity ; a man of whom it may be said, as truly as it ever was 
affirmed of any statesman or patriot, he would lay down his life for 
his country, and would not do a base thing to save it ; one who 
would neither tread upon an insect, nor crouch to an emperor. 
The name of Adam Clarke is a name, of which the native honours 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F, A. S. 669 

can only be reflected — not augmented — by any number of subjoin- 
ed initials, expressive of his well-won academic reputation." 

The following vivid description of his father's preaching is from 
the pen of the Rev. J. B. B. Clarke. 

" The appearance of my father, and his effect, while in the pul- 
pit, upon a stranger, would probably be something like this : — he 
would see a person of no particular mark, except that time had 
turned his hair to silver, and the calmness of fixed devotion gave 
solemnity to his appearance. He spreads his Bible before him, and 
opening his hymn-book, reads forth, in a clear, distinct, full voice, 
a few verses, after the singing of which, he offers up a short prayer 
which is immediately felt to be addressed to the Majesty of heaven. 
The text is proclaimed, and the discourse is begun. In simple, 
yet forcible language, he gives some general information connected 
with his subject, or lays down some general positions drawn from 
either the text or its dependencies. On these he speaks for a short 
time, fixing the attention by gaining the interest. The understand- 
ing feels that it is concerned. A clear and comprehensive exposi- 
tion gives the hearer to perceive, that his attention will be reward- 
ed by an increase of knowledge, by new views of old truths, or pre- 
viously unknown uses of ascertained points. He views with some 
astonishment the perfect collectedness with which knowledge is 
brought from far, and the natural, yet extensive, excursions which 
the preacher makes, to present his object in all its bearings, laying 
heaven and earth, nature and art, science and reason, under contri- 
bution, to sustain his cause. Now, his interest becomes deeper ; for 
he sees that the minister is beginning to condense his strength, that 
he is calling in every detached sentence, and that every apparently 
miscellaneous remark was far from casual, but had its position to main- 
tain, and its work to perform ; and he continues to hear w ith that 
rooted attention which is created by the importance and clearness 
of the truths delivered, by the increasing energy of the speaker, and 
by the assurance in the hearer's own mind that what is spoken is 
believed to the utmost and felt in its power " 

The same writer adds the following interesting particulars : — 
*' From the year 1784 to 1785, he preached five hundred and 
sixty-eight sermons, independently of lectures, expositions &c,; 



670 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

and from 1782 to 1808, he preached no less than six thousand 
six hundred and fifteen sermons, also exclusive of exhortati- 
ons, &c. During his abode in London, for three years, commen- 
cing 1795, he walked more than seven thousand miles, merely on 
journies to preach in the city and its neighbourhood, not reck- 
oning his walking on other private and public business. Another 
remarkable fact concerning that period is, as stated by the late Mr. 
Buttress, of Spitalfields, his invariable companion,' though preach- 
ing at widely distant places, he never preached the same sermon 
twice, excepting on one occasion, at my particular request.' He 
hardly ever wrote a line as a preparation for preaching. I have 
now in my possession a slip of paper, about three inches long by 
one wide, containing the first words of a number of texts ; and this 
was thesole list of memoranda on which he preached seven occasi- 
onal sermons in various parts of the country. He never entered 
the pulpit but with diffidence, and with almost a painful sensation 
of his responsibility as a messenger of the Gospel of Christ Jesus. 
1 have heard him say, that the thought of so inadequately declar- 
ing the counsels of God as to make the Gospel of none effect to the 
salvation of sinners, frequently drank up his spirit, and made his 
goul tremble ; and this, perhaps, operating as such a feeling ought 
to operate in a well constituted mind, caused that fervour of exhor- 
tation which frequently marked his discourses, when all the 
energies of his mind, and power of his language, were drawn forth 
to describe the infinite mercies of the God of love." 

The Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine, for October, 1828, contains 
an able article concerning Dr. Clarke as a preacher, from which we 
have made the following selections ; — " Dr. Clarke's preaching 
is expository. Having read his text, his great business is to ex- 
plain the terms in which it is expressed, and to ascertain the pre- 
cise meaning of the Holy Ghost ; and then to apply to the under- 
derstandings and consciences of his hearers the hallowing truths 
thus discovered. He never sanctions, by his example, the practice 
which is so fashionable in some quarters, of selecting a text merely 
as a motto ; while the preacher proceeds to recommend his thesis 
by rhetorical ornaments, and to establish it by arguments of his 
own invention : leaving his hearers as ignorant of the contents ol 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 671 

God's book as he found them. Dr. Clarke's own practice is in 
strict accordance with the advice which he gives to his brethren. 
' All I have ever read on the subject/ says he, ' has never conveyed 
so much information to my mind on the original, and, in my opin- 
ion, the only proper mode, of preaching, as Nehem. viii. 8: 'So 
they read in the book, in the law of God, distinctly ; and gave the 
sense, and caused them to understand the reading. ' Dr. Clarke's 
preaching is argumentative. He is never declamatory ; and he sel- 
dom satisfies himself with a mere statement of what he conceives to 
be the truth. His object is to produce conviction. For the attain- 
ment of this object, he usually enters into a course of elaborate ar- 
gumentation in every sermon. His argumentation, in some instan- 
ces, is too abstract and recondite for the comprehension of ordinary 
people. We have sometimes heard people of strong sense and 
deep piety confess their inability to follow the learned. Doctor through 
the labyrinths of consecutive deduction, into which he has entered 
in his theological discussions. Dr. Clarke's preaching is decidedly 
evangelical. No minister ever lived, who gave a greater promi- 
nence in his discourses to the vital truths of Christianity, or who 
contended for them with more consistency and zeal. In all his mi- 
nistrations, there is a constant reference to the Divinity and atone- 
ment of Christ, to the doctrine of free justification through faith 
in his blood, and to the renovation of human nature by the mighty 
-working of the Holy Spirit. In his estimation, the true and pro- 
per Divinity of Christ is not an opinion, that may be innocently 
and safely held or rejected, but the key-stone of the Christian re- 
ligion. The atonement and intercession of Christ he constantly 
represents as the only medium of access to God, and as available 
to obtain the pardon of sin, and adoption into the family of God, 
in behalf of every penitent believer, whatever may have been his 
past conduct. He every where directs the attention of his hearers 
to the Holy Ghost, as the source of all strength, and comfort, and 
purity, in the human soul. These are principles of which Dr. 
Clarke never loses sight in the pulpit. The absolute neces- 
sity of this evangelical method of salvation, through the sacri- 
fice of a Divine Victim, and by the inspiration of the third Person 
of the Holy Trinity, Dr. Clarke founds upon the universal depravity. 



'672 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

guilt, and helplessness of fallen man. Dr. Clarke's preaching, 
above that of almost every other man, is distinguished by enlarged 
views of the divine philanthrophy. He lays great stress upon the 
doctrine of general redemption, and the consequent willingness of 
God to save every human being. Next to the denial of redemption 
by the death of Christ, no erroneous tenet seems to rouse his in- 
dignation more, than the limitation of that redemption to a part 
only of the human race, and the absolute abandonment of all the 
rest to irremediable misery and despair. The religion which Dr. 
Clarke so forcibly presses upon the attention of his hearers, is 
eminently experimental and practical. It does not consist merely 
in orthodox opinions, pure forms of worship, and correct moral 
conduct; but is deeply seated in the affections, as well as in the un- 
derstanding, and is manifest in the uniform exercise of holy tempers, 
in a pure and upright and useful life. It is the Doctor s invariable 
practice to exhort every penitent sinner immediately to believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and to expect that direct testimojiy of the Spi- 
rit in his heart which will exclude all guilty fear, and enable him to 
rejoice in God with ' joy unspeakable and full of glory.* As none 
can defend the doctrine of Christian perfection with greater ability, 
so there is not one who is in the habit of enforcing it with greater 
zeal and frequency. The religion which Dr. Clarke is in the habit 
of teaching, is eminently a happy religion. It finds men under the 
displeasure of God on account of their guilt and wickedness, 
and incapable of fellowship and communion with him ; and it leads 
them to the enjoyment of the Divine favour, through faith in the 
sacrifice of Christ; and, by the sanctifying influence of the Holy 
Spirit, it qualifies them for uninterrupted intercourse with God. 
Numerous as are the excellences of Dr. Clarke's preaching, we 
think it is in the application of his sermons that he appears to the 
greatest advantage. Whatever may be the subject of his discourse, 
or in whatever manner it may be treated, his applications are always 
faithful, pointed, impressive ; and they are often distinguished by 
great variety of thought and expression. His applications bring 
the subject home to the understandings and consciences of his hear- 
ers in a manner the most direct and irresistible. They display the 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D,, F. A. S. 673 

most perfect conviction in his own mind of the truth of God's word, 
and leave no room for doubt in the minds of others. They appear 
so manifestly to flow from the heart, and they indicate such an in- 
tense desire for the spiritual interests of all present, that they scarce- 
ly ever fail to command the deepest and most respectful attention- 
We never saw a congregation indifferent under Dr. Clarke's preach, 
ing ; and we never saw a congregation unmoved under his applica- 
tions. In this essential requisite of good preaching, perhaps. Dr. 
Clarke was never excelled. His popularity, which, we believe, has 
never suffered the least abatement in any of the places where he has 
been appointed to labour, is not at all occasioned by the modula- 
tions of his voice, or any thing peculiarly attractive in his action 
and manner ; nor is it occasioned by the arts of a meretricious and 
secular eloquence, which some people profess so greatly to admire.: 
these, indeed, are things to which, we should think, he has never 
paid a moment's attention through the whole course of his life : it 
is rather to be attributed to the solid instruction which his ministry 
uniformly conveys, and to the hallowed feeling which, by the Di- 
vine blessing, it usually excites." 

To the preceding may be added the opinions of several of Dr. 
Clarke's surviving brethren, opinions which are rendered the more 
interesting and the more credible by their virtual coincidence, while 
the semblance of repetition is lost in their verbal variety. 

"The character of his preaching (says Mr. Entwistle) was simple, 
yet argumentative, and sometimes deep and metaphysical ; but ge- 
nerally, so plain, that the least informed in his congregation under- 
stood him. He seemed to have taken no pains to polish his style. 
His language was not adorned with rhetorical figures ; he studied 
not -words, but things ; and, therefore, his style, the produce of a gi- 
gantic mind, was nervous and bold ; and he often astonished his 
hearers with something quite novel in his illustrations of Divine 
truth. His preaching was energetic beyond what is ordinarily wit- 
nessed. In connexion with the atonement of Christ, and the opera- 
tions of the Holy Spirit, he held forth a free, present, and full sal- 
vation—a salvation from all sin, inward and outward to be obtain- 
ed by faith alone in Christ, and in those promises which are yea 
and amen in him. Thus he honoured Christ, and Christ honoured 

5 R 



^7 4s MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

him ; for, in all the circuits in which he laboured, he had many 
seals to his ministry, from his entrance on the work, as I have heard 
many testify ; and, having been once his colleague, and often suc- 
ceeded him, I can bear my feeble testimony to the same." 

The following is from the pen of Mr. Everett: — " As a preacher, 
his action was far from varied, and not, perhaps, in every instance 
graceful to fastidious taste; but it was rarely ever otherwise 
than chaste, and always appropriate. His voice, though not 
round and melodious, was strong and clear ; and, though una- 
ble at all times to manage its tones, which rendered it, in the more 
logical parts of his discourses, a little monotonous, yet, when the 
argument was brought to a close, and the people were wound up to 
conviction by it, there were outbreakings in his voice, as well as 
outpourings among the people, rarely heard and rarely witnessed, 
except from himself and under his own ministry. One instance, 
among many I shall never forget. He was preaching on the occa- 
sion of opening a new chapel. His text led him to dwell on the 
love of God to man. After having established the doctrine of uni^ 
versal redemption by a process of reasoning equally original, pow- 
erful, and conclusive, and the hearers had apparently brought their 
hearts and their understandings to the subject^ — feeling and per- 
ceiving more and more the possibility, the certainty of present, per- 
sonal salvation, he gave a sweep to his arm, drawing it towards him- 
self, and grasping his hand, as though he had collected in it several 
objects of value, and then throwing them, like alms, in the ful] 
bounty of his soul, among the people, * Here,' he exclaimed 
at the close, in a strain the most impassioned, and with one of those 
sudden and peculiar elevations of voice for which he was remarka- 
ble, frequently melting the whole congregation into tears, * Here' he 
said, * take the arguments among you — make the best of them for 
your salvation — I will vouch for their solidity — I will stake my 
credit for intellect upon them ; yes, if it were possible to collect 
tliem into one and suspend them, as you would suspends a weight 
on a single hair of this grey head, that very hair would be fopnd 
to be so firmly fastened to the throne of the all-merciful and- ms^r 
lo\ing God, that all the devils in hell might be defied to cuti itl^ 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARICE, LL. D., F. A. S. 67^ 

two.* He was distinguished by the masculine grasp with which he 
laid hold of the essentials of religion. Though never loose and 
declamatory in his pulpit exercises, still there was thought without 
its apparent labour. His mind was like an immense mine ; he 
seemed to have read all, to have known all ; and, from the inex- 
haustible treasures within, was perpetually pouiing forth fjom its 
own fullness. He never appeared to exhaust a subject ; but v/hen 
he had preached one hour, seemed as though he could preach 
another, leaving his auditory always desirous of more, and wonder- 
ing that he had finished so soon. The Bible appeared like a new 
book in his hands ; the Divine Being seemed to let him further 
into its meaning, to give him a clearer and fuller insight into it, 
than most other men. All his pulpit expositions bore a stamp of 
their own. Profound and elevated as -^^ere his thoughts very often, 
he was never ' hard to be understood.' One of the finest compli- 
mentis ever paid to a great man, was unintentionally paid to him 
by a poor woman in one of the Shetland Isles. She had heard of 
his celebrity, and went to hear him at Lerwick. On her return 
home, she remarked with great simplicity, * They say that Dr. 
Clarke is a learned man, and I expected to find him such ; but he 
is only like another man : for I could understand every word he 
said.' His favour in the eyes of the people was invariably on the 
increase. The sun of their approbation was nearer its meridian 
altitude at the close of life, and shone more brightly, than at any 
former given period : and it is not too much to state, that, when 
otherwise, there is some radical defect, — something objectionable 
in those who, as they advance in influence, diminish in glory. 
No man was so extensively known, out of the pale of the church to 
which he belonged, as Dr. Clarke. To the character and writings 
of no man is Wesleyan Methodism so much indebted for the re- 
spectability it has attained, and for the influence it has exercised 
upon the mass of mankind, as to the productions of his pen." 

" There was in his preaching," says Mr. Beaumont, " not only 
intellectual perception, but also the power of moral persuasion. No- 
thing could separate him and his faith. It was the air of authority 
in which his message was steeped, that made it altogether his own 
and pei fectly unique He demonstrated and expounded, perhaps 



670 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFf . MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

as much as any uninspired man ever did, how the truth was as it 
was, and that it could not but be so. His manner of preaching 
was, beyond all comparison, forceful ; and no one could listen to 
him without being assured, that he was as certain of the truth ol 
what he was enforcing, as of his own existence. The great and 
prominent characteristic of his preaching, was the high degree of 
unction that generally pervaded it. Hence it was, that a sermon 
from him was universally looked forward to, by the people, as a 
feast. To hear him was regarded by multitudes as the greatest 
treat of their lives. Some years since, when he was coming from 
the pulpit stairs, after preaching before the Conference, the subject 
having been the account of Barnabas, the late Mr. W. E. Miller 
stepped forward, flung his arms round his neck, wept a flood of tears, 
and said, 'Bless you ! you are a man of God, full of Faith and full of the 
Holy Ghost.' His ministry is thought to have been more success- 
ful than that of any of his contemporaries, except Mr. Benson, and 
not less than his ; and certainly was far more successful than that 
of any minister now living. In any city, town, or village in Eng- 
land or Ireland, he could have crowded the largest chapel, on the 
morning of any week-day of the six ; and, as to his collections, 
every body knows there was a marked difference between their 
amount and that of those of the most talented and eloquent of his 
contemporaries." 

From the honourable testimony borne by Mr. Anderson, to the 
worth of Dr. Clarke, the following sentences have been ex- 
tracted : — " Dr. Clarke was eminently distinguished, as a preacher, 
by the clearness and forcibleness with which he expatiated on the 
theology of the heart. He always avowed a strong predilection 
for preachers selecting large portions of God's word, as the basis of 
their public teaching and preaching. If ever those words of the 
Apostle had a verification in living man, it was in him : * Let the 
word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.' He also preach- 
ed and taught the word of the Lord in that bold, free, generous, 
and unfettered manner which characterised the first ministers of 
the Lord Jesus. And, whilst he discarded every thing in religion 
that waa visionary and enthusiastic, (no man having more of the 
rational in his creed an • in his teaching,) he was largely gifted 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE. LL.D., F. A. S. 677 



with the unction of the Holy One. It constituted the great charm 
of his public ministrations. It was the grand secret of his wonder- 
ful success. He held in abhorrence the miserable sentiment, that 
the Holy Ghost was exclusively bestowed on the first ministers of 
the Lamb. I think I hear him now, as Mr. Fowler described him 
to me, promisiuf? all present the gift of the Holy Ghost, with all 
the confidence of an Apostle ; and demanding of his hearers, why 
the same Spirit should not fall on them while Adam Clarke 
preached the same Gospel, as when ' Peter yet spake these words, 
the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.* 
Under other circumstances than those in which he was placed by a 
sound conversion to Christ, and a loud call to his ministry, he 
might have ranked amongst the giants of our county : he might 
have been a Porson, or a Parr, or a Johnson ; but he never would 
have been an Adam Clarke !" 

To all these testimonies it may not be superfluous to add the 
brief, but pointed attestation of the Christian Advocate : — " It is 
no small proof of his greatness in the pulpit, that his sermons were 
equally relished by the rich and the poor, by the learned and the 
illiterate. No man, perhaps, ever drew congregations so large, or 
of so mixed a character. Wherever he went, he was eagerly 
followed by all classes ; and the scene, when Dr. Clarke formed 
the principal object in it, was like a special jubilee compared with 
an ordinary holiday. He brought his learning to bear upon his 
subject without any parade, and in the most instructive form ; and 
his native fervour, joined with the clearness of his conceptions and 
the vastness of his resources, never failed to elevate and inform his 
hearers. There was a sort of cordiality in his preaching, that was 
its principal charm. You seemed to be listening to a man, who 
not only had his own heart filled with the love of God, but had 
large stores of it at his disposal for others. No man ever spoke 
more confidently and freely about God than he, probably from the 
peculiar bent of his studies ; and you could not listen to him long 
without recognising in him a man who held communion with the 
Father through his Son Jesus Christ." 

The following sentences are extracted from the warm eulogy which 
Mr. BeaujQont poured out of the fulness of his heart, on the occa- 



678 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

sion of the death of Dr. Chirke : — " In losing hirn, we seem as if 
a light-house had been upset in the midst of the ocean. There ne- 
ver was a man more highly and sincerely honoured while he lived, 
or more deeply and deservedly lamented when he died. In his con- 
duct amongst men, he was remarkably plain and manly — natural^ 
simple, honest, ingenuous, and unaffected. His conversation was 
not learned, except when circumstances so combined as to render it 
a duty to give it that particular character. As his discourse combined 
the agreeable with the edifying, he was listened to with delight. He 
was the very reverse of moroseness ; his heart was the region of 
cheerfulness, and on his tongue was the law of kindness. A more 
expansive and generous mind, I know not. His judgment of his 
brethren was never harsh or severe ; and he was always readyto 
put the best construction on their sayings and doings, which truth 
and justice would admit, and almost more than that. His charac- 
ter had nothing hidden or equivocal about it ; it was all wide, open, 
candid, and majestical. There was a magnanimity, a strength, a 
fulness, a freshness, an originality, about his modes of thinking and 
acting, which w^re as evident to the eye of observation as the line- 
aments of his face. And, though he meddled with politics much 
less than some of his brethren, he was never indifferent to anything 
that bore, directly or indirectly, upon the weal or the woe of this great 
empire, which he longed to see filled with knowledge and righte- 
ousness." 

Mr. H. Moore, who had known Dr. Clarke longer than any man 
who survived him, bore the following high testimony to his moral 
purity : — " Our Connexion, I believe, never knew a more blameless 
life than that of Dr. Clarke. He had his opponents ; he had those 
that differed from him, sometimes in doctrine, sometimes in other 
things ; but these opponents, whatever they imputed to him, never 
dared to fix a stain, either upon his moral or religious character. 
He was, as Mr. Wesley used to say,asa preacher of the Gospel should 
be, ' without a stain ;' or, as a greater than he had said. Dr. Clarke 
could have said, * Which of you convinceth me of sin ?' Let not 
that universal co tency, that rigid regard to justice, that blame- 
less conduct which wa~ so mamfested in ur departed brother— Oh 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL.D., F. A. S. 679 



God, grant that none of these may be lost, either upon his friends, 
upon any that knew him, or any that hear of him !" 

The following are Mr. Everett's remarks concerning the humili- 
ty, the peculiarities, and the consistency of Dr. Clarke : — With 
all his learning, he was perfectly exempt from parade — shunning, 
rather than courting, public gaze. It was partly owing to this that 
a positive promise could rarely be abstracted from him to preach 
out of his regular plan, till near the time ; and, of two chapels 
that have required a supply on any ordinary occasion, he has se- 
lected the least, and gone into the country, when it appeared to 
others that he ought to preach in the town. The crowd, which has 
an element of its own, and which seems to be the only situation in 
which some men can breathe and support existence, was, of all 
others, the situation in which he appeared incapable of living. His 
peculiarities of conduct were the result of order, and only appeared 
such when brought to bear upon the irregularity of others ; and his 
peculiarities of opinion were often the result of learning, research, 
and experience. But whatever may have been the peculiarities of 
Dr. Adam Clarke, he goes through the world without a stain upon 
his moral character — without any shiftings in his professions and 
principles — and with all the essentials of our holy religion in his 
cr6ed." 

The following are a few extracts from the affectionate; but still 
impartial, portrait of Dr. Clarke, which his youngest son has drawn : 
— " In personal appearance, there was nothing particularly remark- 
able in my father. He was about five feet nine inches high, 
and, in the latter years of his life, had a tendency to a full habit of 
body. His fi^ame was one of considerable strength, his limbs 
straight and well-proportioned, and his person unbowed to the last 
hour of his life. His features were characteristic of the benevo- 
lence of his mind. 

" His personal habits were those of unintermitted industry, unen- 
cumbered by busy haste, and directed by the exactest order. "What 
he had to do was performed at once and to the best of his power. 
I never once saw my father idle. Even in his relaxations, his mind 
was occupied, either in contriving and affording entertainment for 
others, or else in deriving healthful pleasure to himself; and hei 



680 MEMOIRS OF THE LEFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 



gained a game at marbles with as much delighted satisfaction at 
any of the children -with whom he played. 

My father's mind never rested still upon its acquirements. * On- 
ward/ was its motto, while perseverance and method enabled him 
to overcome every obstacle and difficulty. But one chief excellen- 
cy of his power consisted in his ability to use knowledge. Great- 
er critical scholars than he there have been, and many, possibly, 
more deeply versed in the various departments of learning and sci- 
ence ; but I believe that there never was an individual who could 
use to such purpose all the stores which he possessed. He possess- 
ed an astonishing power of gathering together rays of light from 
the whole circuit of his knowledge, and pouring them, in one bright 
beam, upon any point which he wished to illustrate or explain. 

" The treasures of knowledge which his unwearied industry had 
drawn together, were all made subservient to the more effective exe- 
cution of his ministerial office. Even the estimation in which he 
was held as a man of learning, was, in some measure, made tribu- 
tary to the advance of piety ; for, in his view, the chief value of his 
fame consisted in his being able to reflect the light with which he 
himself shone, upon that excellent body of Christians with whom 
he was identified. 

" As regards the religious feeling of my father, littie needs to be 
said. The religion of Christ Jesus, in all its fulness of saving pow- 
er, and renewing influence, and sustaining might, was all his enjoy- 
ment, his hope, and his trust. He lived, as it were, in a constant 
intercourse with heaven. There have been few men whose views 
were so clear concerning the straight course of honest uprightness, 
and whose conduct was so little warped by interest or expediency. 
His word once passed, he would no more accept of a refused offer 
than he would be induced to break a positive commandment His 
moral courage partook of the same inflexible property. Whatsoever 
be thought it right should be done, that he possesed resolution to 
do ; he always possessed the dominion of his own mind. Though 
constantly living before the public view, he seldom personally ap- 
peared before it; and, so disinterested were his feelings, that he ne- 
ver once used the influence which he possessed with some of the 
highest and the worthiest in the laud, in behalf of his own family. 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL.D., F. A S. 681 



I am persuaded that he derived no little satisfaction from the thought 
that he was never looked on as an expectant, or dreaded as a requisi- 
tionist. Persons of all ages, capacities, and conditions in life, have, 
at various times, been inmates at his house ; and none ever left it 
but with regret ; so much could he win upon all classes by his affa- 
ble manners, cheerful and informing conversation, and the uninter- 
mitted kindness of his considerate attention. It was on this account 
that his friends were many, and his acquaintances few. 

'* Dr. Clarke's conversational powers were very considerable, and 
extremely diversified ; and they were at all times suitable to the 
company, and the circumstances of those around him. With the 
young, he would enter into his own childish labours, disappoint- 
ments, and encouragements, always blending religious and moral 
truths with the details of his well-told narrative. To the sanguine 
feelings of rising youth, he would speak of the shadows which ex- 
perience throws over the glare of untried life, of the shoals and 
quicksands which sometimes cause shipwreck, yet insisting on how 
much energy of purpose, and strength of good resolve, enabled a 
man to cope with advantage against many and mighty evils, when 
the wide field of life and usefulness lay before him. He was at all 
times remarkably social in his habits and dispositions; and his con- 
versation abounded in instructive and humourous anecdotes. While 
speaking on subjects connected with religion, his sayings were the 
wisdom of experience, resulting from the knowledge which his own 
spirit had gained in the deep things of God. 

" An economist of time himself, he could not bear to see it wast- 
ed by others ; and, even when his little grandchildren were around 
him for a time, he always kept them engaged according to their 
ability. To one he would give a book of pictures to look over, — 
to another, different bits of coloured stones, or paper, to arrange on 
the floor, — to a third, a piece of board with a little hammer and 
some nails, to drive in, and pull out again ; and so on, in order 
that even their infancy should not know the evils consequent on idle- 
ness. 

** When the hours of study were over, and he joned the other 
members of his family, in order to rest his eyes, Mrs. Clarke, or 
one of the party, was in the habit of reading aloud all ih evening, 

, 5 6 



68^1 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

on which occasions his observations on the works, the sentiments, 
the opinions, of the author and the times, were fraught with impor- 
tant information, but ever treated with a rigid regard to that fair and 
manly construction which he put upon all things of which he had 
to judge ; but any evidence of absolutely false sentiment, or unsound 
reasoning, he analysed and rooted up, that his family might not drink 
in injurious opinions or prejudicial errors. 

" As the head of a family, his conduct was most exemplary. Re- 
gularity kept every thing in order. Kindness was the ruling power ; 
and the observance of every religious and moral duty, made all the 
inhabitants of his abode unitedly a Christian household. None 
who were in want, left his door unrelieved. He has several times 
been known, when near his own gate, to give away his own shoes, 
in order to cover the feet of another. To his servants, his behavi- 
our was perhaps over-indulgent, his natural kind-heartedness mak- 
ing their situation, want of education, imperfect acquaintance with 
moral obligation, all so many pleas for allowances, and reasons for 
the excuse of errors. 

*' The present feelings of ray mother are testimonies that the 
choice of her youth continued to the last the object toward which 
all her affections turned and were satisfied. His conduct to his chil- 
dren was such as to endear him to them from the earliest age. He 
was their companion in their play, and often devoted hard-earned 
time to their amusement. He very seldom directly praised any of 
his children, in several instances having seen the ruinous effects of 
this practice. Among other things, he would never allow us to re- 
ceive money from visitors at his house, as he desired his children to 
feel, *hat whatsoever in this way was proper for them, their parents 
would give. Had he a top, or a whip, or a hoop, to give away, he 
>R'ould always make even the least do something before he obtained 
El J — he must run a certain distance, or jump a certain height, or 
pcrfo rm some other feat : thus, in all things, striving to create a 
wholesome spirit of independence, by making the gift so far the re- 
sult of their own exertions." 

These are unquestionably very high and flattering encomiums on 
the character, talents, and acquirements of Dr. Clarke, sufficient 
to raise him to an enviable distinction among the authors and di- 



OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE. LL. D., F. A. S. 683 



vines of the age in which his lot was cast. But the reader must 
recollect that the whole of it comes from those who were his inti- 
mate friends and associates — consequently must be construed with 
somegrains of allowance on the score ofprivate friendship and partiali- 
ty. The Methodists are a singular class of people; they have but little 
intercourse with other denominations, and are but too apt to " mea- 
sure themselves among themselves," and fancy that all excellence 
centres in them. Without wishing to detract a single iota from what 
is justly due to Dr. Clarke on the score of his literary attainments 
and personal virtues, I must yet say that I think the picture which 
has been got up by his associates in the ministry, and exhibited in 
the preceding pages, is considerably overcharged in the colouring. 
As a divine and Theologian, his pretensions always appeared to 
me to be slender — and both as a preacher and writer, he was 
much inferior to Mr. Richard Watson, which 1 believe he was al- 
ways ready to admit. It is not wise, therefore, in his family and 
friends to claim for him the highest station among his contem- 
poraries. 

If any apology were requisite for abating something of the high 
tone of panegyric in which the biography of Dr. Clarke has been 
given to the public by his own family and friends, I should not need 
to seek for it beyond the writings of Dr Clarke himself. Let the 
reader take the following extract as a specimen of what could be 
produced from them. He is animadverting on the conduct of Re- 
bekah, and her son Jacob, Gen. xxvii. ad Jinem \ when he thus 
proceeds. 

** In the preceding notes, I have endeavoured to represent things 
simply as they were. I have not copied the manner of many Com- 
mentators, who have laboured to vindicate the characters of Jacob 
and his mother, in the transactions heie recorded. As I fear God, 
and wish to follow him, I dare not bless what he hath not blessed, 
nor curse what he hath not cursed. I consider the whole of the 
conduct, both of Rebekah and Jacob, in some respects deeply cri- 
minal, and in all highly exceptionable. And the impartial rela- 
tion of the facts contained in this and the twenty-fifth chapter, 
gives me the fullest evidence of the truth and authenticity of the 
sacred original. How impartial is the history which God writes I 



f 



684 MEIVfOmg OF THE LIFE, MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

We may see, from several commentators, vhat man would ha\e 
done had he had the same facts to relate The history given by 
God, details, as well the vices as the viriaes of those who are ita 
subjerts. How widely different from that in the Bible is the Bio- 
graphy of the present day ! Virtuous acts, that were never perform- 
ed ; voluntary privations, which were never borne ; piety, which 
was never felt ; and, in a word lives which were never lived, are the 
principal subjects of our biographical relations. These may be well 
termed the Lives of the Saints ; for to these are attributed, all the 
virtues that can adorn the human character, with scarcely a failing 
or a blemish ; while on the other hand, those in geaeral mentioned 
in the sacred writings, stand marked with deep shades. What is 
the inference which a reflecting mind, acquainted with human na- 
ture, draws from a comparison of the biography of the Scriptures 
with that of uninspired writers? The inference is this? the scrip- 
ture history is natural, is probable, bears all the characteristics of 
veracity ; narrate circumstances which seem to make against its 
own honour, yet dwells on them, and often seeks occasion to re- 
peat them. It is true ! infallibly true ! In this conclusion, com- 
mon sense, reason, and criticism, join. On the other hand, of bio- 
graphy in general we must say, that it is often unnatural, improba- 
ble, is destitute of many of the essential characteristics of truth ; 
studiously avoids mentioning those circumstances which arc dis- 
honourable to its subject ; ardently endeavours either to cast those 
which it cannot wholly hide into deep shades, or sublime them in- 
to virtues. This is notorious; and we need not go far for numer- 
ous examples. From these facts, a reflecting mind will draw this 
general conclusion — an impartial history, in every respect true, can 
be expected only from God himself." 

This is a strain of writing every way worthy of the pen of Dr. 
Clarke, and it ought to put to silence the ignorance of those foolish 
people who would hold up his own character as a paragon of every 
excellence that can dignify and adorn human nature. That it 
displayed shining virtues no impartial person will deny ; while a 
regard to truth compels us to add that it is marked occasionally 
by great weaknesses, and the common infirmities of human nature, 
lu the former class I should be disposed to enumerate his kind^ 



OF THF. REV. ADAM CLARKE, LL. D., F. A. S. 



685 



courteous, and conciliating manners ; his total exemption from arro- 
gance, austerity of demeanour, and the superciliousness of literary 
pride, and scorn, and contempt of inferiors which is common to 
men of fame and renown. Dr. Clarke was at all times as access- 
ible, unless preoccupied by matters of business, as the meanest 
peasant in the land, and his character was marked by great ur- 
banity. His abstemious and frugal habits were universally cogni- 
zant to his friends, and in this respect his life was as transparent as 
amber. And if we think of his industry and application, not only in 
the prosecution of his studies, by means of which he raised himself to 
a level with the first scholars of his day ; but also his persevering 
exertions to benefit his fellow creatures by his pi cachings and 
writings — in respect to which his labours may be placed in the 
scale against those of the whole bench of bishops collectively, 
without the least danger of their being outweighed, or overba- 
lanced. In his domestic habits, he merited a niche beside Philip 
Melancthon. But when we see the good man carried away with 
the pride of Aristocratic distinctions — obviously flattered by the 
notice bestowed on him by the Derby family, as the letters, written 
to distant friends demonstrate was the case ; and more especially 
by the honours which he received from the Duke of Sussex, who 
sent him home from the palace at Kensington " after dinner," in 
one of the royal carriages, how can we wonder that such cutting 
remarks as the following, should find their way into the public 
journals. 

" The presence of the mighty ones who crowd splendid rooms 
has here [in Dr. Clarke's life] a reverence which has no sanction 
in Scripture. Such homage to rank belongs essentially to the 
world of yanities, the poorest and the falsest. It is a blot in the 
character of a man otherwise exemplary ; and as he wa§ otherwise 
exemplary, the more necessary it is that the blot should be noticed 
with condemnation, so that others who would imitate his virtues 
may keep their minds free from a fault so unworthy of them. In 
this example we see the curse of aristocracy which intoxicates the 
purest spirits with a miserable vanity. Paul Lewis Courier 
observes, that if ther« were but three men in the world, two of 
them would fall upon the third, and make him a slave, and then 



^86 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFEj MINISTRY, AND WRITINGS, 

one would fall at the feet of the other and call him Lord. What a 
pride is that which is derived from this prostration to unmerited 
exaltation! Look at the things which strut about as *the mighty 
ones crowding splendid rooms,' and think what the pride must be 
which is picked out of the mere act of mixing on sufferance with 
these poor creatures. Here was a man of great learning and piety 
who exulted at breathing the same air, and treading the same 
floor, and mingling v(Jices with those, iVi/ nisi Cecropides, who had 
been ciphers in the world, hewers of woods, and drawers of water, 
had they not been by the accidents of birth, 'Mighty Ones.' " 

That any occasion should have been given for strictures such as 
these, is surely much to be regretted ; but the family of the Dr. are 
much more to blame than himself, who, in all probability, little 
anticipated that what he wrote, hastily and inadvertently for their 
gratification, on the impulse of the moment, would ever be blazoned 
forth to public view, in the manner it has been. 

But, after all, the crowning defect in Dr. Clarke's theological 
character and attainments, appears to me to consist in his very im- 
perfect views of the nature and glory of our Lord's kingdom in this 
world, as an economy purely spiritual and heavenly. Had he under- 
stood the import of Christ's good confession before Poutius Pilate, 
" My kingdom is not of this world," and traced it out as illustrated 
in the apostolic writings, and exemplified in the churches planted 
under the guidance and direction of his inspired ambassadors, we 
should never have heard him eulogising that sink of corruption, 
the Church of England as by law established, nor paying court 
to its prelates as the ministers of Christ. Some apology might 
have been found for conduct such as this two or three centuries ago ; 
but in the present day, when the light which makes manifest the 
hidden works of darkness common to all human establishments of 
Christianity, shines with such splendor around us ; when the 
voice is gone forth, " Come out of her my people, that ye partake 
not of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues ; for her 
sins have reached into heaven and God hath remembered her 
iniquities" : it is difficult to find an apology for the things Dr. 
Clarke has written in its behalf and the warm attachment he has 
frequently evinced towards it 



687 



INDEX. 



A. 

Act of Uniformity, its effects, 209. 

Advocate, Christian, its tribute to Dr. Clarke's memory, 676. 

Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, some account of, 487. 

Anderson, Mr. his tribute to the memory of Dr. Clarke, 676. 

Annesley, Mr. of Surat, his singular case, 627. 

Apocalypse, how strangely Dr. Clarke wrote about it, 599. 

All Beys Turkish Version of the New Testament, referred to, 434 

— Strictures on its faults by Dr. Henderson, 435. 
Angels and Men, compared, 535, 6. 

Anus, of Alexandria, some particulars of, 489. * 
Arnobius, some account of, 484. 

Astronomical Phenomena, several of them specified by Dr. Clarke, 
576. 

Athanasius, particulars of him and his writings, 490. 

B. 

Barber, Mr. Thomas, some account of, 33 ; his address to Adam 
Clarke, 35 ; editor's remarks on, 36 ; forces young Clarke into 
a class, 41. 

Baynes, Mr. William, Dr. Clarke's last interview with, 629. 
Beattie, Dr. his Minstrel quoted, 1. 

Beaumont, Mr. Joseph, his defence of Dr. Clarke, 625 ; his 

tribute to the Doctor's memory 675 and 678. 
Begging Sermons, Dr. Clarke gets weary of them, 626. 
Belfast Institution, how spoken of by Dr. Clarke, 418. 
Benson, Rev. Joseph, his death and character, 403 ; compared 

with Dr. Clarke, 656 ; tablet to his memory in the City Road 

Chapel ibid. 

Biography, its use and abuse pointed out. Preface — how and when 

prostituted, vi. — Dr. Clarke's remarks on, 683. 
Boehler, Peter, his singular counsel to Mr. Wesley, 205. 
Bradford Circuit, A. Clarke's first station, 98 ; his success tlieu 

100. 

Bredin, Mr. John, his kindness to Adam Clarke, 65. 
Brettel, Mr John, some account of him, 31. 



688 



ENDEX. 



British Government and Constitution, Dr. Clarke's eulogy on the, 
559. 

Burking, Dr. Clarke's allusion to, 630. 

Burns, Robert, Dr. Clarke's strictures on his monument, at Dum- 
fries, 414. 

Butterworth, Joseph Esq. curious anecdote of his courtship, 175 ; 
his marriage with the sister of Mrs. Clarke, ibid. — he and his 
vrife join the Methodist Society, 177 ; his princely offer towards 
the Polyglott, 339 ; his death, and funeral Sermon, 454 ; 
Sketch of his character by Mr. Richard Watson, 455. — his great 
kindness to Dr. Clarke and his family, 589 ; Butterworth, Mrs 
some account of her death and character, 402, 

C. 

Catherwood, Dr. W, H. his kind attentions to Dr. Clarke, 641. 
Caf^o/zVpopulation of Ireland, how described by Dr. Clarke, 423, 
Campbell, Miss Dorothea, her complimentary stanzas to Dr. 
Clarke, 452. 

Chambers Cyclopaedia, Dr. Clarke's opinion of, 131, 
Cholera, its terrific ravages at Liverpool, 643. 

Christianity, its first principles illustrated, 195 ; founded upon Christ's 
resurrection, 196; influenced by faith in the atonement, 197; 
subdues the principles of corrupt nature, 198 ; and becomes a 
new instinct, ibid. 

Cicero, his estimate of true glory, 1. 

" Clarke Monument Committee," its object, 655 ; why censured 
658. 

Clarke, Adam, his family and parentage, 4 ; time and place of his 
oirth, 5 ; his childhood, 6 ; dulness of his boyhood, 7 ; severity 
of his schoolmaster, 8 ; surmounts his sluggishness, 9 ; his re- 
flections on the duties of a schoolmaster, 10; his school describ- 
ed, 13 ; disadvantages of his education, ibid ; satyrizes his 
schojol fellow, 14 ; catalogue of his library, ibid ; his fear of his 
mother, 16 ; she teaches him to pray, 18 ; and to reverence the 
Sabbath, 19 ; attends the dancing school, 20 ; his reflections on 
this practice, 21 ; his father intends him for a clergyman, 22 ; 
two accidents which befell him, 23 ; his reflections on drowning, 
24 ; his first connection with the methodists, 30 ; his conversion, 
37 ; much distressed in his mind, 89 ; his spiritual conflicts, 
43 ; remarks on, 44 ; finds what he calls the witness of the 
Spirit, 46 ; applies for communion in the established church 47 ; 
his subsequent reflections on, 48 ; falls again into distress of 
mind, 49 ; remarks upon, 50 ; his conflict in the field, 51 ; this 
•tate examined by scripture, 52 ; errors on the subject pointed 



INDEX. 



6S9 



out, 54 ; Meeting of Methodism and Ultra-Calvinism, on the 
doctrine of assurance, 57 ; his progress in Classical learning 62 ; 
and in general literature, 63 ; books by which he profited, 64 ; 
is put an apprentice to Mr. Francis Bennet, of Coleraine, ibid ; 
retires after a years trial, 66 ; suffers from the bad temper of a 
female servant, 67 ; appears to lose his rationality, 69 ; remarks 
on, 70 ; how he obtained relief, 71 ; casts his lot among the 
Methodists and begins to preach, 73 ; visits Mr. Bredin on the 
Londonderry station, 74 ; his parents object to his going to 
Kingswood school, 75 ; but yield, 76 ; his journey to England, 
77 ; danger from a press-gang, ibid ; kind reception at Liverpool, 
78; journey to Birmingham, 79; finds Mr. Joseph Brettel there, 
80; journey from thence to Bristol, 81 ; his scanty finances, ibid ; 
his singular reception at Kingswood, 82 ; character of the heads 
of that establishment, 83 ; his introduction to Mr. Wesley, 87 ; 
receives ordination from him, ibid ; refusal to drink healths, 89 ; 
reflections on Kingswood school, ibid ; syllabus of Adam 
Clarke's creed, 90 ; strictures on, 95 ; Introduction to the work 
of the ministry, 97 ; preaches at the village of Road, 98 ; his 
success, 100 ; is warmly reproved for writing Latin, 101 ; dis- 
tress of mind occasioned by it, 102 ; determines him to abandon 
the study of Greek and Hebrew, 104 ; makes a vow and recalls 
it, 105 ; leaves off the use of Tea, 106 ; attends the Conference 
at Bristol, 107; receives an appointment to the Norwich Circuit, 
108 ; finds the state of religion low in Norfolk, 112 ; undergoes 
much hardship there, 1 13 ; hears females preach, and approves, 
116 ; receives an appointment to the St. Austell circuit, and 
proceeds thither, 117; forms an acquaintance with Samuel Drew, 
118 ; his life endangered by a fall from his horse, 127 ; observes a 
remarkable phenomenon, ibid ; extent of his zeal in preaching, 
128 ; friends acquired in Cornwall, 129 ; appointed to Plymouth 
Dock Circuit, 130 ; annoyed by a set of singers, 133 ; his 
juvenile pieces noticed, 137 ; protests against publishing his 
unrevised letters, 142 ; his appointment to the Norman Isles, 
143 ; resumes his classical studies, 144 ; meets with a copy of 
Walton's Polyglott, 146 ; becomes possessed of one in a singular 
way, 147 ; meets with persecution from the mob, 148 ; is near 
perishing by cold, 152 ; suffers greatly in his health, 159 ; 
revisits England, 1 60 ; perilous voyage from Alderney to Jersey, 
162 ; his letter to Mr. Wesley, 164 ; obstacles attending his 
marriage, 173; his reflections on the effects of his ministry in 
Guernsey, 178 ; is removed to the Bristol Circuit, 179 ; some 
account of his studies at this time, 180 ; his bad accommodation 
at Bristol, 181 ; appointed to the Dublin circuit, 183 ; enters a 
student of Trinity college, 184 ; indifferently accommodated in 



690 



INDEX. 



Dublin, 187 ; institutes the " Strangers Friend Society,*' 188 ; 
forms a similar Society in other places, 189 ; becomes informed 
of the death of Mr. Wesley, ibid ; is removed to Manchester, for 
proximity to the Buxton waters, 254 ; loses a fine healthy boy, 
262 ; removes to Liverpool, ibid ; nearly escapes assassination 
from a Roman Catholic, 263 ; engages to keep the chapel at 
Knowsley supplied with preachers, 265 ; receives his aged 
parents to reside near him, 266 ; he receives an appointment to 
the Metropolitan Circuit, 267 ; advantages of a London resi- 
dence, ibid ; sets about his Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, 
268 ; his own account of its design and progress, 269 ; decline 
of his health, 277 ; sundry anecdotes related of him, 278 ; loses 
his father, 281 ; removes to Bristol, 283 ; anecdote of the pur- 
chase of Meninski's Thesaurus, 284 ; publishes several of his 
minor productions, 286 ; forms an acquaintance with the family 
of Dr. Fox, the physician, ibid ; institutes the " Philological 
Society " in Liverpool, of which he is chosen president, 290 ; 
goes to London to consult a physician, ibid ; anecdote of an 
Egyptian fragment of stone, at Somerset house, 291 ; returns to 
Liverpool, and loses his brother, Tracy Clarke, of Maghull, 292 ; 
removes to Manchester and instructs a Class in Hebrew and 
Greek, 293 ; lends assistance to the Eclectic Review, 294 ; afflict- 
ed by the loss of one of his children, 296 ; receives a second 
appointment to the London Circuit, 297 ; reflections on his lite- 
rary character, 298 ; his extraordinary labours and exertions 
in London, 299 ; joins the Committee of the British and Foreign 
Bible Society, 300 ; his letter to lord Teignmouth on the subject 
of an Arabic version of the Bible, 301 ; is engaged to prepare a 
fount of types, 302 ; the Bible Society present him with Fifty 
pounds, which he declines to accept, 303 ; resolution of the Com- 
mittee founded thereon, 305 ; accompanies a party into Wiltshire, 
308 ; Stone-Henge, Wilton House, Wardour Castle, Fonthill, 
&c. 309; obtains a diploma from Aberdeen, creating him, LL. D. 
312 ; is applied to for assistance by the Commissioners of the 
Public Records, of the kingdom, 313 ; undertakes an improved 
edition of Rymer's Foedera, 314 ; difficulty of finding suitable 
assistants, 319 ; prepares an Essay on the subject, 320 ; which 
is read to the board of Commissioners, 322 ; labours at this task 
for ten years, 325 ; publishes the first Part of his Commentary, 
340 ; his letter to Mr. Hughes of Battersea, 355 ; visits Ireland 
in connection with Mr. Butterworth, 358 ; examines the Diplo- 
matic papers in Trinity college, Dublin, 359 ; his tour through 
the northern counties, 361 ; remarks on the Giant s Causeway, 
362 ; the round towers, 363 ; visits the Catholic college of 
Maynooth, 365 ; Gibbon, the noted outlaw, ibid ; returns to 



INDEX. 



London, and learns the death of his mother, 366 ; Witticisms 
on the Oran-Outang, 367 ; proceeds to Cambridge on the sub- 
ject of the Record Commission, ibid ; collates the allegorical 
poem of King Hart, 368 ; returns home and again visits Ireland 
on the business of the Record Commission, 370 ; returns home 
and proceeds to Oxford on the same errand, ibid ; finds himself 
overwhelmed with the multiplicity of his pursuits and sighs for 
retirement, 373 ; tenders his resignation in the Record Commis- 
sion, and Committee of the Bible Society, 373 ; fixes his resi- 
dence at Millbrook, in Lancashire, 378 ; again visits Ireland, 
passing through Dumfries, 381 ; meets with numerous disasters, 
382 ; his reflections on visiting the scenes of his youth, 383 ; 
frightful disaster at Millbrook, 384 ; receives under his roof, two 
Budhist Priests, from Ceylon, for education, 385 ; description of 
their persons, and manners, 386 ; amusing anecdotes respecting 
them 387; obtains the noticeof the Derby family, 391 ; they refuse 
to accept a present, 392 ; their letters of gratitude to Dr. Clarke 
at parting, 393 ; Dr. Clarke repeats his visit to Ireland, 395 ; 
remarks on the state of the Irish peasantry, 397 ; reflections on 
the Irish character, 399 ; efforts of England to relieve them, 
400 ; returns to Lancashire, and is elected a member of the 
Royal Irish Academy, 401 ; visits Epworth, the birth-place of 
Mr. Wesley, and is enchanted, 402 ; introduced to the Duke of 
Sussex, 408 ; elected a member of the Geological Society, of 
London, 413 ; his Vindication of Methodism, 419 ; his account 
of Irish Bulls, 425 ; removes from Lancashire to Middlesex, 
427 ; interests himself for the Shetland mission, 429 ; his visit 
there in 1827, 442 ; encounters a hurricane off" Lerwick, 445 j 
his description of Shetland 447 ; accident near his own home, 
458 ; prepares for another trip to Shetland, 461 ; his preachings 
there, 462 ; is engaged in opening a new chapel, and consecrat- 
ing it to the Holy Trinity, 469 ; Review of his writings, 470, &c. 
his preaching at Stockport, Halifax &c. curious account of, 
607 — 9 ; again visits his native country, 611 ; exerts himself 
for the abolition of negro slavery, 612 ; establishes Schools in 
Ireland, 613 ; is gratified with seeing them, 6J5; umbrage taken 
by the Methodist Missionary Committee, 617; displeased at 
being made a supernumerary preacher, 622 ; undertook to com- 
pile Memoirs of the Wesley family, 627 ; overturned in a coach, 
and subjected to great hardships, 630 ; his last interview with 
Mr. W. Baynes, 629 ; and Mr. Scott, of Pensford, 631 ; his 
complimentary letter to the Duke of Sessex 633 ; sanguine 
anticipations from the Reform Bill, 634 ; attends his royal 
highness's levee, 635 ; his own account of his flattering re- 
ception, 636 ; his letter to Mr. Robert Southey, 637 j is in- 



692 



INDEX 



vited to America, 63B ; his letter in reply, ibid ; his high ex- 
pectations of the United States, 639 ; how affected on hearing 
of the riots in Jamaica, 640 ; visits Ireland once more, and is 
laid up with illness, 641 ; severity of his sufferings, 642 ; hears 
of a disaster which had befallen his son, ibid ; returns to Liver- 
pool, and finds the Cholera raging, 643 ; journeys homewards, 
but finds the Cholera every where, 644 ; his family struck with 
his exhausted state, 645 ; returns to the Conference at Liver- 
pool, 646 ; resigns his Shetland Missions to Conference, 647 ; 
is appointed supernumerary for the Windsor district, ibid ; pays 
a visit to his son at Frome, 648 ; his account of the Frome 
Meeting, ibid ; his reflections on his youthful days passed there 
650 ; looks forward to extended usefulness, 651 ; hears of sad 
disasters which had befallen his friends in Shetland, ; his 
deep anxiety about the Cholera, ibid ; engages to preach at 
Bayswater, 652 ; goes there and dies, 653 &c. ; his funeral 
obsequies, 655 ; proposal for a monument, ibid. 

Clarke, Rev. J. B. B. his account of his father's appearance at 
Frome, 647 ; and of his father's death, 654 ; ^is estimate of his 
father's character, &c. 669 ; and 679. 

Clemens Alexandrinus, some account of, 475. 

Colchester, Lord, Speaker of the house of Commons, his letters to 
Dr. Clarke, 326. 

Colliers of Kingswood, Mr. Wesley's preaching among them, 219. 

Cold, intense, reflections on its benumbing tendency, 153 ; inves- 
tigation into its properties, ibid. 

Conversion of the first disciples, in what it consisted, 217. 

Cooke, Miss, of Trowbridge, afterwards Mrs. Clarke, referred to, 
137 

Copplestone, Dr. bishop of Llaudaflf, his character of Mr. Wesley, 
252. 

Cornwall, glance at its antiquities, 129. 

Cork Institution, Dr. Clarke's account of, 422. 

Commentary on the Scriptures, Dr. Clarke's, some account of, 585. 

Cunningham, Allan, his graphic sketch of Robert Burns, 415. 

Cyprian, of Carthage, some account of his writings, 480. 

Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, some account of, 495. 

D. 

Death by drowning, reflections on, 27. 

Discourses, by Dr. Clarke, on the Being and Attributes of God, 
some account of, 560 ; singular reasons for publishing them, 561. 
Drew, Mr. Samuel, some account of, 118 ; estimate of his literary 
. acquirements, 120 ; his publications, 121 ; becomes editor of the 



INDEX. 



693 



Imperial Magazine, 124; powers of his mind, 125. 

E. 

Eclectic Review, Dr. Clarke's connection with, 294 ; 306 ; some 

account of the Editor, ibid. 
Edinburgh, city of. Dr. Clarke's high eulogium on, 417. 
Education in Ireland, its low state, half a century ago, 11. 
Entwistle, Mr. his character of Dr. Clarke's preaching, 673. 
Epiphanius, some interesting particulars of, 500. 
Eusebius, of Caesarea, 492. 

Everett, Mr. his description of Dr. Clarke's preaching, 674 ; and 

character of, 679. 
Evils, natural, remarks on, 140. 

Exley, Mr. Thomas, his theory of Physics, quoted, 682. 

F. 

Fables ofJEsop, Dr. Clarke's praise of, 15. 

Fisher, Mr. Henry, displays great liberality and kindness towards 
Dr. Clarke, 379, and note ; accompanies Dr. Clarke to Ireland, 
381. 

Fox, Dr. of Bristol, curious anecdote related by him, 287. 

Fox, Mr. Charles, son of the preceding. Dr. Clarke's acquaintance 
with, 288 ; his fondness for the Persian poets, 289. 

French Revolution, reflections on the, 254 : Dr. Clarke*s estimate 
of its results on the liberties of Europe, 601 ; his opinions contro- 
verted, 602. 

French Epigram, translated by Dr. Clarke, 275. 

G. 

Gambold, Mr. Richard, his letter to Mr. Wesley mentioned, 201. 
Greenley, Mr. of Chatham, called in to attend Dr. Clarke under 

Cholera, 653. 
Glory, earthly reflections on, 137. 
Goldsmith, Dr. his Deserted Village quoted, 12. 
Gospel, its first introduction into Britain, considered, 503. 
Guernsey, Dr. Clarke's account of, 178. 

H. 

Hall, Robert, referred to, p, ^,note — his reflections on the French 
Revolution, 255 — his ideal standard of excellence in preaching, 
560 — his disgust at begging sermons, 627. 



694 



INDEX. 



Hampson, Mr. his defence of Mr. Wesley at Norwich, 115 

Haydon Hall, described, 427. 
Hay ward. Dr., his remark to Mr. Wesley, 199. 
Hensman, Mr. of Liverpool, his medical attendance on Dr. Clarke, 
646. 

Heretics, Dr. Clarke's judicious remarks concerning, 501. 

Hilary, of Poictiers, particulars concerning, 498. 

Hore, James Esq., his kindness to Adam Clarke, 131. 

Hervey, Rev. James, one of the Methodistic students at Oxford, 

191, — reference to, 210. 
Hohbs, Mr. of Bayswater, his kind attentions to Dr. Clarke, 652. 
Holmes Septuagint, reviewed in the Eclectic, by Dr. Clarke, 306. 
Holyrood House, how described by Dr. Clarke, 417. 
Hunter, Mr. Andrew, his advice to Adam Clarke, 38. 
Huntington, William, strictures on, 57. 

L 

Ingham, Mr. Benjamin, joins the Methodist students at Oxford, 
191. 

Jersey ^ its luxuriant Soil, 177. 

K. 

Kennicott's, Dr. Hebrew Bible, Dr. Clarke's obligations to, 133. 

Kilham, Alexander, divides the body of Methodists, 271 ; some ac- 
count of the grounds of their disunion, ihid ; reflections on the 
subject, 272. 

Killaloe, Bishop of, his complimentary letter on the death of Mr 
Wesley, 246. 

L. 

Lavtantius, some account of him and his writings, 486. 
Leivis, Mr., of Shepton Mallet, Dr. Clarke's letter to, 626. 
Leigh's Critica Sacra, Dr. Clarke's opinion of, 132. 
Letsom, Dr. his thoughts on drowning, 24. 
Love of God to a Imt world. Dr. Clarke's Sermon on, 517. 

M. 

Mahyn, Mr. Richard, Dr. Clarke's acquaintance with, 128. 

Man, his original dignity described, 521 ; what he is stiL capable 

of, 522, and 526. 
Marsden, Mr. George, liis conduct towards Dr. Clarke censured, 

625. 



INDEX. 



695 



Mason, Dr. of New York, referred to, 3, no^e,and 587. 

Mason, Mr. a Methodist preacher, some account of, 136, 

M' Leans Apostolical Commission, quoted, 513. 

M*Nicvl, Mr. D., his tribute to the memory of Dr. Clarke, 659 ; 
his opinion of Dr. Clarke's Commentary, 662 ; and of his other 
writings, 663 ; of the Doctor's leerning, ; ofhis industry &c. 
664; and ofhis general character, 665. 

Memoirs of the Wesley Family, compiled by Dr. Clarke, 627. 

Methodism, compared with the New Testament, 41 ; how first in- 
troduced into the island of Alderney, 165 ; Dr. Clarke's accom- 
modations there, 168 ; its state in Ireland at the time of Mr. 
Wesley's death, 182; its origin at Oxford, 191 ; how far deterio- 
rated according to some of its friends, 419, note. 

Methodists divided into the Old and New Connection, some account 
of, 271 ; grounds of separation, and principles of the New Con- 
nection, 273. 

Methodist preacher, reflections on the life of a, 282. 

Missionary Societies, Dr. Clarke's catalogue of, 506. 

Missionaries , D r. Clarke's excellent advice to, 568. 

Moore, Mr. H., his life of Mr. Wesley referred to, 628 ; and tri- 
bute to his memory, 678. 

Morgan, Mr., one of the first Methodists at Oxford, 191 ; visits the 
prisoners in Oxford jail, 192 ; his indisposition and death, 199. 

ili/orm's Life of Robert Hall quoted, 3, note; the biographer not 
blessed with a very retentive memory, 587 ; investigation of his 
remarks concerning Dr. Clarke's Commentary, 588. 

N. 

Nicholls, Mr. John, his estimate of Mr. Wesley's usefulness, 252. 
Novatianus, and his followers, some account of, 482. 
Novel writers, Dr. Clarke's estimate concerning, 566. 
Nuttall, Mr. Jonas, his kindness to Dr. Clarke, 379. 

O. 

Origen, some account of him and his writings, with strictures on 
the latter, 477. 

Origin and End of Civil government. Dr. Clarke's lecture on, 557. 
Ovid, quoted on the human frame, 584. 

Owen, Rev. John, his letters to Dr. Clarke, 373 ; reply of the lat- 
ter, 375. 

Otvcn, Dr. John, quoted on Mutual Exhortation in the Churches, 
514. 



696 



INDEX. 



Paine, Thomas, his Rights of Man, referred to, 257. 
Pampldlus, of Caesarea, some account of, 483. 

Parry, Captain, his description of cold in the North Polar Regions^ 
155. 

Psalmody, in places of worship, judicious strictures on, 564. 
Perfection, Dr. Clarke's doctrine of, examined, 545; dangerous 

tendency of the sentiment, 556. 
Pettigrew, Mr., Secretary to the Duke of Sussex, his official letters 

to Dr. Clarke, 405,407. 
Philological Society, of Manchester, their compliment to Dr. Clarke, 

297. 

Plutarch, quoted on cold, 153. 

Plymouth Dock, Mr. Clarke's preaching there, J 33. 

Polyglott Bible, a new edition projected by Dr. Clarke and Jo- 
si ah Pratt, 337 ; they publish a Prospectus, 338 ; failure of the 
undertaking for want of the concurrence of the Episcopal Bench. 
339. 

Pond, Mr., introduces Mr. Butterworth to Miss Frances Cooke, 
175. 

Porson, Richard, some account of that distinguished scholar, 328 ; 
his education, literary attainments, and habits of life, 3.30; his 
connection with the Morning Chronicle and its proprietor, 331 ; 
his singularities &c., 332 ; awful death, 333 ; estimate of his 
character and wonderful talents, ibid; excelled chiefly as a 
Greek critic, 334 ; his letters to Archdeacon Travis, against the 
authenticity of 1 John, v. 7, 336. 

Priestley, Dr., how assailed by a Birmingham mob, 259. 

Prophet, Christian, and his work. Dr. Clarke's Sermon on, 509 ; 
its sentiments controverted, 511, 

R. 

Religion, state of it in England, when Wesley and Whitefield arose 

208 ; retrospect to the days of Archbishop Laud, 209. 
Revelation, its progress, why so slow, 139. 

Revolution, French, its terrible effects upon all Europe, 254 ; how 

Adam Clarke was affected by it, 257. 
Roberts, Thomas, of Bristol, his death, 635. 

Rothsay Castle, steam vessel, melancholy accountof its wreck, 621. 

S. 

Salvation by Faith, Dr. Clarke's Sermon on, reviewed, 545 
Scott, Robert Esq., of Pensford, a magnificent patron of tne Shet- 
land Mission, 630 ; Dr. Clarke is summoned to witness his last 



INDEX. 



697 



hours, ibid ; relation of his dying experience, 631 ; remarKS on, 
ibid; his princely donations for Missionary purposes, 632 ; sends 
a cheque to Heaven for acceptance, ibid ; reflections on this sin- 
gular act, 633. 

Scottish Clergy, take alarm at the Shetland Mission, 429. 

Self-righteousness, the principle of, illusti-ated in the case of Mr. 
AVesley, 194. 

Seeking to be born again, mistakes concerning, 59. 

Sheffield, awful disaster on opening a chapel there, 425. 

Shetland Islands, T)t. Clarke projects a mission there, 409; true 
account of their condition, 431. 

Singing in public worship, Dr. Clarke's remarks on, 134. 

Smith, Mr. Thomas, of Rotherham Academy, his correspondence 
with Dr. Clarke, 435. 

Solander, Dr., narrowly escaped death by cold, 154. 

Sonship of Christ, Dr. Clarke's notion of, controverted, 542. 

Sovereignty of God, in shewing mercy, what Dr. Clarke thought of 
it, 539 ; his inconsistency shewn, 541. 

Southey, Mr. Robert, his letter to Dr. Clarke, 637. 

Stanhope, Earl, a letter from him to Dr. Clarke, 295. 

Sione-Henge, Dr. Clarke's visit to, 307 ; his description of it, 308. 

Succession of Sacred Literature, Dr. Clarke's reviewed, 469. 

Sum and substance of Pauls Preaching, Dr. Clarke's sermon on, 
549. 

Supernumerary, Dr. Clarke made one against his inclination, 624. 

Sussex, his Royal Highness the Duke, invites Dr. Clarke's acquain- 
tance, 404; receives from the Doctor title pages for the Paris 
Polyglott, 405; invites Dr. Clarke to his palace at Kensington, 
408 ; sends the Doctor home in his Royal Highness' carriage, 
ibid; is presented with a copy of Dr. Clarke's Commentary, 410; 
Letter from his Royal Highness acknowledging the honour done 
him, 413; invites Dr. Clarke a second time to Kensington pa- 
lace, 433 ; visits Dr. Clarke at Haydon Hall, 457 ; compliment- 
ed by Dr. Clarke, 633 ; laments the Doctor's death, and ap- 
proves of a monument to his memory, 656. 

. T, 

Taylor Dr. of Norwich, his Key to the Apostolic writings, exam« 

ined, 592 ; unhappily adopted by Dr. Clarke, 598. 
Teignmouth, Lord, his letters to Dr. Clarke^ 358. 
Tertullian, some account of, 476. 

Three Heavenly witnesses, Dr. Clarke's remarks oi 72. 
Tooth, Miss E., her interest in the Wesley family, 627 ; Dr> Clarke » 
correspondence with her on the subject, 628. 

5 U 



698 



INDEX. 



Tracy, Rev. Mr., his connection with the family of Dr. Clarke, 5. 

Travellers Prayer, Dr. Clarke's Discourse so called, 549. 

Turkish Janissary, visits Dr. Clarke at Dublin, 184: his singular 

history and adventures, 185. 
Turner, Mr. Sharon, a beautiftil extract from his Sacred Historv of 

Uie World, 525, 536. 

V. 

Vanderhagen Hebrew Manuscripts, purchased by Dr. Clarke, 467. 
Vizelle, Mrs. afterwards Mrs. John Wesley, some account of, 225 ; 
separates from her husband, 226 ; her conduct reprobated, ibid, 

W. 

Watson, Mr. R., his remarks on Mr. Wesley's experience, 201 ; his 
conduct in reference to Dr. Clarke's monument, 656. 

Ward, Hon. Miss Sophia, her liberality to the Shetland mission, 
and Irish schools, 619. 

Wesley, Mr. John, anecdotes concerning his miraculous powers, 
169 ; controverted, 172 ; interposes in behalf of Mr. Clarke's mar- 
riage, 174; attended the Conference at Bristol, 1790, and pro- 
tests against the too frequent preaching of his ministers, 181 ; sketch 
of his biography, 190 ; educated at the Charter-house, and after- 
wards sent to Oxford, ibid; reads Law's Serious Call, and be- 
comes an ascetic, 191; counsel given him by his father, 192; 
becomes zealous for saving others, while ignorant of the way of 
salvation, 194 ; visits Mr. Law at Putney, 199 ; his father is anx- 
ious that his son should succeed him at Epworth, 200 ; declines 
the proposal and sails for Greorgia, ibid ; becomes fellow passen- 
ger with Moravian Missionaries, 202 ; is struck with their con- 
duct during a storm, ibid; arrives at Savannah and begins his 
labours, 203 ; has a misunderstanding with a young lady there, 
204 ; quits Georgia precipitately and returns to England, ibid ; 
falls in with Peter Boehler, who convinces him of unbelief, 205 ; 
visits the Moravians in Germany, 207 ; impressions made on him 
there, 208 ; returns to London and begins to preach, 211 ; visits 
Mr. Whitefield at Bristol, and commences field-preaching, 213 , 
succeeds in building a chapel at Bristol, ibid; effects produced 
there by his preaching, 214 ; Mr. Wesley's perplexity, who con- 
sults Ralph Erskine the Seceder, ibid; opinion of his brother 
Samuel Wesley, 215; these singular excitements tested by the 
scriptures, 216 ; breaks with Mr. Whitefield, and reduces Metho- 
dism to a system, 221 ; holds the first Conference meeting 222 ; is 
opposed by the regular clergy, 223 ^ has a correspondence with 



INDEX. 



699 



Archbishop Herring, ibid; attacks the Moravians, who renoance 
all connection with him, ibid; extract from his journal on his 
persecution in Lancashire, 224 ; marries Mrs. Vizelle, a Baptist, 
with whom he lives unhappy, 225 ; the parties separate after a 
time, 226; Mr. Wesley visits Scotland by invitation, 227; takes 
the entire control and management of the societies, ibid; revisits 
Scotland at the request of Dr. Gillies, 228 ; apprehends con- 
sumption, and writes his own epitaph, ibid; visits the hot wells 
of Bristol, and begins his notes on the New Testament, 229 ; 
holds the Conference at Leeds, and discusses the question of se- 
parating from the Church of England, ibid; proposes to 
his people to enter into a Covenant, ibid; corresponds with 
Mr. Walker, of Truro, 230 ; visits Ireland, and receives a letter 
from Dr. Barnard, ibid; reproves the dissentions among his 
preachers, 230; breakfasts with Mr. Whitefield at Bristol, and 
finds him nearly worn out, 231 ; endeavours to strengj^ien the 
union among his preachers, and render it permanent, ; sends 
preachers to America to water the plant of Methodism, 232 ; re- 
marks on his Journals, ibid ; gets involved in a dispute with 
Toplady and Hill, 233 ; is assisted by Fletcher of Madeley, ibid ; 
writes a Tory pamphlet on the American war, 234 ; makes an 
amusing return of the quantity of his silver plate, ibid; visits 
the Isle of Man, and stops a persecution, 234 ; opening of the 
City Road chapel, 235; commenceB the Arminian Magazine, 
ibid ; opposes further grants to the Catholics, ibid ; applies to 
bishop Lowth to obtain episcopal ordination for one of his preach- 
ers, but is refused, 236 ; pays a visit to Holland and preaches a» 
Rotterdam, ibid ; reflections on his attaining the full age of four 
score, 237 ; is taken ill at the Bristol Conference, ibid', recover! 
and completes the organization of the Methodistic body, 238 ; 
again visits Holland, ibid; his opinion of the Hutchinsonian 
system, ibid ; visits Dublin and meets Dr. Coke returned from 
America, 239 ; goes to Guernsey and meets with a female prodigy, 
ibid ; remarks on his manner of life, and surprising activity, 
240 ; encounters the jealousy of the clergy, 241 ; account of the 
labours of the last year of his life, ibid ; taken ill while preach- 
ing at Lambeth, and lingers eleven days, when he died, 242 ; 
monument to his memory, in the City Road chapel, 247 ; Des- 
cription of his person, dress, and manner, 248; estimate of his 
talents as a preacher and author, 249 ; remarks on his Theolo- 
gical sentiments, 250 ; strictures on the Methodistic economy, 
25 i ; Testimony of Dr. Copplestone, bishop of Llandatf, 
252 ; extract from Nicholl's Literary Anecdotes, 253. 
H ti/ei/, Mr. Charles, 01 iginates Methodism at Oxford, 191; ac- 
companies his brother to Georgia, and settles at Frederica, 203 ; 
his preaching in London^ and intercourse with th^ Moravians, 



700 



INDEX. 



220; visits the North of England, 227; becomes somewhat es* 
tranged from his brother, ibid, 
Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, quoted on Dr. Clarke s character, 
670. 

Whales, a, remarkable draught of them at Shetland, 450. 

White^eld, Mr. G., one of the Methodistic students at Oxford, 191 ; 
sails for Georgia to succeed Mr. Wesley, 205 ; returns home, 
and begins field preaching at Bristol, 1739, 212; invites Mr 
Wesley to copy his example, ibid ; expostulates with Mr. John 
Wesley on account of his Arminianism, 220. 

Wtlber/orce, Mr. his letter to Dr. Clarke, 613. 

Winterbotham, William, a victim to Tory politics, and how recom- 
pensed, 259. 

World, attempt to define the import of the term, 518. 
Wrangham, Archdeacon, his correspondence with Dr. Clarke, 437 

Y. 

Yaunge, Miss of Coleraine, her kindness to Adam Clarke, 66. 



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